The Child of Everlasting Twilight
by KH2083
Summary: Megan Gwynn has been attacked during a date in amusement park. She becomes involved in events that will reveal her mysterious origins and connection with the world which exists only in the legends of her country. Other stories in this Elseworld: "Sleepwalker"
1. Chapter 1

**Child of Everlasting Twilight**

World: Marvel/X-Men

Time: After Reload

Characters: Paragons group

**Chapter 1 **

In the hot, summer night, the middle-aged man with red hair and moustache of the same color left the municipal bar with simple sounding name: "Beneath Ruins". He visited these premises every Friday evening in order to relax by the beer after the entire working week. Every visit proceeded the same way, with the same company and conversations about the same not very interesting topics. Things were supposed to be entirely different that night. When ginger man was passing by prostitutes known in the entire neighborhood, a man dressed in black ran up to him and pulled him to the dimwit backstreet. The red haired man was disorientated at first, however he didn't have a chance with the assailant much stronger than himself. The stranger pinned him down to the wall, looking deep into his eyes.

"Ian... it's me. Will, do you remember me?" The aggressor asked with a hoarse voice. He had greasy, and messy hair and bloodshot eyes. Ian said yes still being terrified. Will calmed down and let him go. He put his hand on the wall and started breathing more calmly.

"Have you gone mad? Meeting with me this way? Could you not just call? We can meet in the pub!" The surprised man with a big moustache asked.

"I could not... the risk is too great! Nobody can know about the fact that we got in touch..."

"What do you mean?" The ginger man was irritated very much.

"It concerns your daughter. We must get her back homewards... we can protect her only here..." "Megan is in danger? She's in the most protected place in the world!"

"You understand nothing... her mother is in a big danger..."

"Liz? What are you talking about?" Will was silent for a moment. He looked deeply in Ian's eyes.

"I meant her real mother..."

Next day, on the other side of the ocean, Megan mentioned by the mysterious man and her boyfriend Mark, young mutants from Xavier's Institute, went together on a trip to the funfair. Wings of the girl didn't turn an attention of people passing by her because there were many colorfully dressed persons in a bizarre disguises entertaining guests of the park. Megan was thought to be another employee, imitating a butterfly or a fairy from some fairy tale. The couple stopped at the entrance to the one of attractions - the slide looking like a huge snake. Megan sat down on the bench, she felt tired and legs ached her. Mark suggested, that he would bring something to drink, and then he disappeared in the crowd. The girl was looking around herself. A loud music coming from a few places simultaneously and a hubbub of children annoyed her, but in spite of it she was satisfied very much from the day spent in the company of her boyfriend. The clown dressed in the dress with red dots came up to her and he gave her pink balloon in the shape of cat's head. The girl smiled to him unwillingly. People's laughter reached her from the scene on which children were throwing cookies at the fat woman in the ruffled dress, sitting on a tiny, wooden stool. Megan noticed that a few meters farther, the man was in the long raincoat standing by the tree. Mutant girl thought that he had been looking at her every couple of minutes. At that very moment, Mark came back from the shop and he gave her the can of cold drink.

"Mark... I have a strange impression that this man is tracking us". She discreetly pointed at the stranger.

"I could see him when we entered to the park, later when we drove this railway..." She added.

"There is only one way to check it out..." The boy took Megan by the hand and pulled her toward the tree by which the man was standing. The couple quickly passed by him, not even looking at his direction. When they walked away a few meters and disappeared in the crowd, Mark looked behind. The man finished smoking a cigarette and moved to their side.

"You were right. He is walking after us".

"Who can he be? What will we do?" The boy noticed the view tower, the highest building in the entire funfair. They run across wooden bridge and crowded café garden. They quickly found themselves at the entrance to the tower. Getting through in its direction, the boy knocked down the employee dressed up as a huge egg, almost turning him over. At the last moment the couple of mutants took the place inside the lift of the attraction. The mysterious stranger ran up to the building's entry, but the person guarding it stopped him because of the exceeded limit of people being able to simultaneously tour the tower. Megan and Mark leaned against the wall of the lift. An electronic music started coming from loudspeakers, darkness fell in the interior of the room and color templates symbolizing miracles found during interstellar journeys appeared on the ceiling.

"We lost him". Mark replied.

"At the moment... It's interesting what he can want from us".

"Probably nothing good. We must think out how to get rid of him."

Jessica Vale, dressed in black trousers and black sleeveless shirt was sitting on the bench in front of the halls of residence of Xavier's Institute. There was a painted green dragon on the cover of the book which she was reading. Suddenly she felt that her abilities were becoming active. She had the vision. She was in the funfair, she was running in unknown direction every couple of minutes hitting people. Circus clowns appeared in front of her, intentionally slowing her down so that she didn't reach her destination on time. She was on some hill. Her friends were there, Megan and Mark and some pale woman with black hair. Jessica tried to shout something, but the voice didn't get out of her throat. Demonic stranger knocked her acquaintances into the chasm. The girl awoke from the vision. She shouted and the book which she was reading fell down on the pavement. One of students going by her stopped seeing that something was wrong with her. Jessie was poured with sweat, she was breathing with difficulty.

"Megan... Megan and Mark... they're in danger... great danger..."

The pair of young mutants was on the observation deck. Nobody paid attention to them, because guests touring the attraction were entertained with admiring the panorama of the funfair. Mark turned in the direction of the balustrade, trying to protect his companion from the quite unpleasant wind. The sky became red from the Sun setting on the horizon. Megan, with her eyes fixed on the excellent atmospheric phenomenon, stopped thinking about the trouble and the mysterious man who tracked her. She turned in the direction of the boy, touched his shoulder.

"How much time do we have? How long can we be here?"

"Probably 20 minutes, perhaps less, I don't know. Megan, are you afraid?"

"No... as a matter of fact yes, I'm afraid of this man. But I thought rather about how long we can be here together".

The sun was already very low over the horizon and the tower and other high structures of the park, cast long and black shadows on all surroundings. Mark didn't say a word to Megan what alarmed the girl. She got hold of his shirt, she wanted to cuddle. The boy lightly turned her away from himself. "Listen to me, Megan. You'll stay here. The attraction isn't being closed yet, you'll go down with next group of sightseers. I'll come back now and I'll try to learn what this man wants from us."

"I won't do it! I'm coming back with you. If something happen to you..."

"Don't worry. After all you know that the one ordinary man can do nothing to me..." Mark embraced Megan and wanted to kiss her. She knew that he was trying to calm her and force her to let him act the way he planned. They started kissing. Girl not controlling herself stretched her wings. Fortunately people were too busy with watching the sunset in order to notice anything.

Jessica was sitting on the bed in one of small rooms of girl's dorm. There were two friends by her: Andrea - blonde from the Alpha Squadron group and Hope. The second one was holding the cell phone trying to call somebody.

"Come on... pick up Megan... quickly..." She talked to herself. Jessie also tapped someone's number out.

"Mark... it's really important." Nobody answered.

"Damn it! They turned them off... we won't get in touch with them." Black-haired girl shouted.

"Are you sure about what you could see?" Andrea asked.

"No. I haven't had explicit visions since the time of my transformation. But this one was different. Pixie is in danger. Somebody is hunting her. Some woman".

"Why would she be supposed to want to do something to her?" Hope asked.

"She's a mutant. For some it's a reason good enough". Jessica saying these words got up.

"We have to inform others. I'm going for Ben, you go to Nicholas, Hope". Girls split up. Alarmed Andrea also left the room.

Mark kissed Megan and he went to the lift with the group of people. Mutant girl hesitated for a moment, but in the end she ran after him. To his terror she quickly was by him and the door of the lift closed with characteristic hiss.

"You went mad! I told you to do something else!" The boy shouted seeing his girl in the lift.

"I won't leave you alone! You knew about it!" Mark put headphones of his Discman on his ears.

"Ok." He replied and noticed that some madam in glasses was staring at him.

"As soon as we leave the tower, you'll escape in the same direction as I." He added with whisper looking straight in the eyes of Megan. The door of the viewing point opened with a quiet crack. People left the lift still enthralled by the view of the setting sun above the horizon. An evening semi-darkness was ruling over surroundings, street lamps and lights of shops and other attractions turned on. The clown with balloons strolled amongst children leaving the funfair and buttons on his dress phosphoresced in red color. The mysterious man in the raincoat spotted young mutants. After a moment he noticed that using darkness and the crowd, the couple had slipped out of the building and moved away from him with a fast steps. He rushed after them.

"Mark... He noticed us. Perhaps we should fight with him?"

"No... I had such an intention, but now when you're with me I won't risk."

Young mutants went down along stone stairs to the colorfully lighted merry-go-round with white, plastic figures of horses. They sneaked past it. A very kitschy music playing around hurt mutant girl's ears. Mark smiled and he stretched the arm. He transformed sounds coming up to him into the wave of the energy which he sent toward the crowd and the man tracking him. The attack of the mutant caused the giddiness and irritation to appear among people who under its influence began to push each other. The attack didn't reach the stranger, but the confusion slowed his march in the direction of Megan and her boyfriend down. Some fat man started swearing to the circus clown standing beside him. He hit him so firmly that he turned over straight to the man in the raincoat. In the same time a young woman with black hair and pale complexion dressed in white jacket was sitting in the café above the lane on which young mutants were. She was looking at the fleeing couple and strange behavior of crowds of people. She noticed Megan's wings growing out of her back. She smiled ominously rising from the table and vacated the local quickly.

"You shouldn't have do it! You used your abilities on people! We aren't allowed to do it!" Megan said to Mark upset with what happened a few minutes ago.

"They'll be ok. And our plan worked. He isn't tracking us". The girl looked behind herself.

"Indeed. We lost him."

Mark hugged his companion and he thought that it was high time to leave the park of entertainment. After a few minutes young mutants found their way to the poorly lighted alley with tall trees growing on its both sides. Megan felt worse. She stopped to rest and build up her strength. DJ was alarmed by her state. "What happened?"

"I don't know, I'm not feeling good..."

"You are anxious. Our entire evening was spoiled by this guy..."

"No, it's not this..." Megan looked at her boy's eyes.

"I'm feeling something strange. As if some chills seized me... as if something very evil came near..."

The hunch of Megan was supposed to come true in a minute. The woman with black hair dressed in white turned up at the light spot of the lamp post. Pixie's heart started beating faster, the girl instinctively cuddled up to Mark. Stranger didn't say a word, she was only looking coldly at mutants. The clown handing out balloons in the shape of cats came up to her. He had only one balloon left, he handed it over the black-haired woman. She destroyed the gift before his very eyes. She affected the clown who slid unconscious to the pavement.

"Let's get out of here!" Mark shouted and pulled Megan's hand. The girl quickly came to her senses. When they both run to the another, more populated part of the park, the woman smiled and pointed at their direction. The tide of chill hit the escaping mutants. Megan felt it really hard. She clutched her stomach, bent over the fence and threw up. Mark touched her shoulder.

"Megan! Pull yourself together! We must get out from here!"

"It's she... her mere presence is killing me..." Pixie whispered. The girl was feeling very bad, but the instinct of self-preservation and supporting boy were enough for her to overcome the weakness and she decided to move into the way forward. The two of mutants were running toward the exit from the park. They thought that centuries were passing, they had been hitting people and employees of amusement park dressed in strange, colorful dresses every couple of minutes. They were wandering on lanes of the funfair a dozen minutes not being able to find the route leading to the exit. Something or somebody caused that they could not focus their thoughts on anything, it completely messed up their minds. The image blurred in front of their eyes, colorful lightings of the attraction blinded them and the music which became the chaotic cacophony of sounds for them, annoyed their ears. Megan hit the huge, plastic head of the clown. She shouted from a terror and then the head laughed with a mechanical voice. Mark pulled the girl to his side. He hit some fat woman who smiled to him maliciously. The image in front of eyes of the couple started being washed away and the music became faster, louder and senseless. They both reached the abandoned, renovated House of Ghosts. They leaned against its cold wall tired. Noises and colors disappeared and minds of young mutants could work properly again.

"What was that?" Megan asked.

"I don't know... but it was horrible." Mark answered wiping the sweat off his head.

"She'll be here... what are we going to do?"

"I'll try to call..." The boy took his cell phone out. As it turned out it was out of order.

"Damn... Megan, check what's with yours!"

"The same... it's out of order..."

"It's most probably a trick of this woman". Mark looked at the great ghost painted above the entry to The House of Ghosts.

"Let us enter there. We'll hide ourselves and think what to do". He gripped the girl's hand and disappeared with her in the interior of the attraction. There was a darkness inside, it was stinking of old wood and dirty dust whose thick layer settled on the floor. Characters from different well-known horrors: vampires, werewolves, mummies and monsters of Frankenstein were hung on walls and the ceiling. Everyone of them was in an awful technical condition which made it look more gloomy.

"I don't like this place, Mark... let us leave from here as soon as possible". Megan announced and touched the arm of the boy.

"Come on, these are only breaking down mannequins". Mutant girl looked around with anxiety as if she tried to spy something in the darkness ruling in the room.

"It isn't about these figures... I sense this unpleasant chill again. She is here Mark! This woman!" Pale stranger came out of hiding. The light of the neon flowing through the hole in the wall of the building granted her the infernal appearance. She smiled looking at the boy.

"Boy, you'd better escape from here as soon as possible. This matter doesn't concern you but only your charming companion". DJ covered Megan behind himself. He turned the music in the Discman up.

"In order to get her, you must go through me!" His hands sparkled with energy. He fired a shock wave toward the woman. Stranger dodged the energy and it wiped out the mechanical bat hung on the wall.

"I warned you to escape as long as you could. Now you'll have to die also ". She ran up to DJ and hit him strongly. The boy fell down in the more distant part of the room. Megan grabbed the piece of the steel pipe strongly.

"Don't come up to me! Walk away from here!" Threats didn't disturb the stranger. She came up to the girl, tore the pipe out from her hand and she threw it to the other end of the room. She caught mutant girl by the neck. Megan felt her icy hug.

"You must die. It was decided".

Shots sounded. A great surprise appeared on the pale face of the woman. After a moment she noticed three wounds made by bullets in her body. She fell down on the floor letting go of the girl's neck. Falling down, she broke the cardboard coffin in which the artificial mummy was lying. Megan started to look all around. The unshaved man in the raincoat was standing at the second end of the room. He was holding the gun warm from the shot. Mark ran up to the girl, hugging her close to himself. Both were looking at the man who rescued them and the stranger lying motionless with a fear in their eyes. "Is she... did you kill her ?" The boy asked.

"No... it isn't possible to kill them with conventional methods, but cold metal in her body will inflict pain on her, which she deserve". The man with the weapon replied.

"Who are you?" Pixie whispered.

"It isn't important. Get out from here... quickly! There is a rear exit from the park at the second end of this building. It is closed, but it won't stop you... Escape!"

"But..." Megan wanted to learn more but Mark touched her shoulder.

"Let us do what he asks for..." He said. Both disappeared deep inside the room. The stranger squatted by the pale woman.

"And we'll have a fun a bit longer." He announced looking at her face.

The pair of mutants was walking along the road illuminated by lamp posts' glow. Their step was fast, they wanted to walk away from the place in which the unknown person tried to take their life as soon as possible. They were silent, they planned only to go behind the walls of Xavier's Institute. Suddenly a floodlight of the driving up car lighted them. Mark instinctively embraced his friend. The car stopped right by them. As it turned out Jessica and Hope as well as Ben - the leader of the Paragons group were inside it. Hope ran out of the vehicle and came up to Megan. She touched her arm. "Megan! Is everything ok? Are you in one piece?" She asked.

"Yes, everything's all right..." The girl answered.

"Wait a minute, How do you know that something happened to us? Why did you come here?"

"Jessie had the vision of the future. She could see that some woman with white face would attack you. The vision was so intensive... we had to become convinced that nothing happened to you". Jessica also left the car.

"Mark, did you say that something had happened to you? Did my vision turned out to be true?"

"Yes, some woman with white skin attacked us in the park. She wanted to kill us, namely she really wanted to kill Megan only. We don't have a clue who she was..."

"Did you escape her?" Ben asked.

"No, but some man helped us. He turned up at the moment, when that woman wanted to kill me and he simply shot her dead... " Megan answered him.

"Did you try to talk with him?" The boy asked farther.

"No... he ordered us to escape quickly..."

"We did what he had asked for. We were too terrified and disorientated to think who he was and why he helped us".

"You'd better take his advice and quickly come back to the school. We don't know if somebody else is not hunting for Pixie, I cannot evoke any significant vision". Jessica said. Mark and Megan got in a the car.

"You must come back to the Academy and tell Emma Frost exactly about everything. Let her send the group of X-Men to examine this funfair, perhaps they'll find something which help us to learn whom this murderess and our defender were". Ben announced.

"It'll be too late..." Jessica whispered.

"What do you mean by that?" Match asked.

"Where did you see them the last time?" The black-haired girl asked Megan.

"In the old out of order house of fears right by the enclosure. There is a hole by which it is possible to come in from the street. That way we escaped". Preview approached Match.

"Come back to the school with them. Tell everything to Frost. I and Hope will try to come back to the park and find this guy".

"You cannot! It's too dangerous! I should go also. I'm leader of this team".

"You have the body shining in the darkness and the flame instead of hair! You are really not blatant!" "Ok.. Jessie, but remember: do not mess it up! Do you understand?"

"I know, I know..." Jessica answered. Megan was shaking from cold and terror. She wrapped herself in her wings.

"Let us go from here. I cannot be in this place any longer..." The car started driving home, leaving two young mutants on the street.

"Jessie? Are you sure that it was a good idea?" Hope asked.

"Really bad. But who wants to live forever? We're going!" Preview patted her friend on the shoulder. Both girls headed in the direction of the backdoor to the amusement park. They cautiously went through the low-cut hole in the hedge and they entered the breaking down hovel which many years ago was the most often visited attraction in the entire funfair. Jessica went first, inspecting the room before making every footstep. Friends found themselves in the main chamber. Hope looked all around, watching plastic zombie and dummies of monsters breaking down from the old age sprinkled with the layer of dirty dust.

"It's not a nice place..." Hope announced.

"It's not. It's too tasteless for me." Jessica commented. She noticed tracks of the fight in the form of destroyed characters. She came up to drops of some blue liquid spilt on the floor. She squatted and she started watching them.

"No sign of the man, or the body of this woman. How is it possible that he could remove her from here so quickly? Megan said, that the woman had been shot, yes? Perhaps it's her blood?" Preview announced founding something interesting.

"Jessica! Don't touch this goo!" Hope tried to warn her.

"Calm down, I'm going to touch only a floor nearby these drops. They must be somewhere in the vicinity. Perhaps I'll manage to see some vision?"

The girl touched the floor. Her mind was flooded with the wave of images.

_Man in the raincoat torturing the pale woman. Expedition through mountains during the intense snowstorm. Secret room full of the darkness and beings from which coolness is radiating. Garden with strange plants at a dusk. Elegant man playing the piano. Young father carrying the soul of his child. Moors flowing with wind and the older woman burning the candle in the window of the cottage. The wooden boat sailing on boundless waters of the ocean. Huge gate opening with a bright glitter._

"Jessie! Jessie! Awake Jessica!" Hope touched the friend. Black-haired girl was in the trance, she was looking straight ahead moving her lips without words. After the physical contact with the second mutant, she calmed down. Big brown eyes watching her with a concern was the first view she saw after regaining consciousness.

"Hope... what I saw... was simply remarkable... senseless, without order. I don't know whether they were glimmers of what is supposed to happen or what already happened... damn... I was high..." Trance helped her to get up. Preview shook her trousers from dust and dirt.

"Hope. You must try to search the neighborhood of this funfair. You must try to find anybody who seems a bit suspected. I have a feeling that something really big is happening here. We must know what connection Megan has with it all."

"Okay..." Hope replied and she closed her eyes. After a moment her astral projection left the body and then rose up to the ceiling and farther above the roof of the old building. She examined the funfair from the height, trying to discern something abnormal. Next she inspected every corner of the theme park with a speed of thought. She checked every attraction, shop and café, every technical building and even toilets. In vain, since mysterious man who was supposed to carry or to hide the body of murderess dissolved into thin air leaving no track. The girl came back to her body.

"Jessie, I'm sorry... I saw nothing... I searched everywhere..."

"In that case let's hurry up, because it's late and we can't miss the last bus to Salem Center". The mutants decided to come back to the school. The pentagram was drawn on one of the walls of the hovel amongst a dust, after the departure of girls it started shinning with white glow. The man in the raincoat holding the unconscious, pale woman turned up by it.

"I don't want you to be exposed to a danger." He said to himself thinking about for Jessica and Hope.

Megan and other members of Paragons keeping her company came back to the Xavier's Institute. They entered the main schoolhouse with the intention of talking to Shan. Emma Frost surprised them in the corridor.

"Miss Frost! In the funfair Megan..." Ben started the conversation.

"She was attacked by the mysterious, pale woman." Frost completed his sentence.

"But everything turned out well thanks to the stranger". She added.

"Did you read our thoughts?" Mark was indignant.

"I didn't have to. Your emotions are now so intense that it wasn't possible to block the inflow of your thoughts to my head. It's the same if you wanted somebody not to hear the radio broadcasting something at full blast. Now let us walk into my study." Emma came up to Megan and gently touched her back.

"Megan, let me calm you telepathically". Megan's boyfriend looked at the teacher angrily.

"Please do it." Pixie announced. The woman influenced emotions of young mutant girl, calming her down. The girl felt better. Mark stopped being afraid that Frost will violate the privacy of Megan. Everyone were in the study of the headmistress. Emma was sitting down on her armchair.

"I caught emotions and images from your memories, but you'd better tell me about what happened yourself".

"I'll tell, I don't want Megan to go through all of it again." Mark suggested.

"Of course".

"Afternoon, we went with Megan to the amusement park. Everything was all right, until some strange, pale woman appeared. She started chasing us or more specifically Pixie, I don't know why. She used on her... and on me something... as if she tried to cloud our minds... Megan was feeling very bad... how did you describe it ?"

"Her mere presence was killing me... her eyes filled me with such a disgust... I don't want to remember about it".

"She defeated us, I thought that I wouldn't be able to rescue Megan. Then this man appeared. He shot the pale woman dead and he ordered us to escape".

"You did very well listening to him. And you, how did you know about this?"

"Jessica had the vision. She saw that something was threatening Megan..." Ben replied.

"And where is she now?" Frost asked.

"Hmm... She went to the funfair with Hope".

"What? She must meet with me as soon as she returns! I won't let her do such unreasonable things! She knew well that she was exposing herself to a danger!" Frost shouted. Mark took the cell out of the pocket. He read SMS out.

"It's Jessica. She's coming back to the school... They found nobody..."

"Good! But she'll be punished! She must wait a few years before she can play the X-Men!" Frost got up and moved from the desk. She announced the group that they could walk away to their rooms. She decided to find Wolverine and send him to the funfair in quest for assailants. She turned to Pixie.

"Megan, I know that you are feeling better now, but you must absolutely go to the clinic. Let Doctor McCoy examine you".

"Ok," The girl replied. DJ hold his hands on her shoulder and he accompanied her toward the medical section.

In the Danger Room located in vaults of the building the training session was going on. Logan, familiar to the majority under the name Wolverine was a teacher and his only student was Laura Kinney, black-haired girl which was created from his own genetic code. Both were wearing white kimonos. The man was going to teach his charge techniques which she leant many years ago in Japan. Green eyes of mutant girl were looking at him.

"Remember Laura, today you aren't using your claws. You must learn to disarm opponents, without killing them, without using your weapon even if it's a part of your body".

"I understand..."

"Let us start! Attack me, but remember, irrespective of everything, fight without claws!"

Laura prepared to attack Logan. Suddenly the astral projection of Emma Frost appeared in the room. "Logan! We need your help, I'll tell you telepathically what happened and location to which you must go..." The interested girl was looking at Wolverine as she silently merged telepathically with Frost. When Emma finished her projection Logan headed for the door. Opening them he looked behind and smiled to Laura.

"What are you waiting for ? Get dressed! It's high time for field exercises!"

Megan was sitting on the bed in the clinic dressing herself. Dr. McCoy finished her examination, stating that she's healthy and the pale woman didn't damage her body, at least not physically. The door of the study opened and Wolverine with X- 23 accessed the room.

"Logan? What can I help you with?" Hank asked diverging from the desk with the microscope.

"Is Megan still here?"

"Yes, she's there." Henry approached the white screen of the room separating beds from the rest of the room. He turned it away. Pixie was standing there calmly, looking at people gathered together around her. She didn't say a word. Logan came up to the girl and smelt her.

"There is a track of that woman on her... very weak, I've never met this smell before. She wasn't one of X-Men's opponents. Laura...?" The girl guessed what the mutant had wanted to ask her to do. She came up to the friend and she also smelt her. Megan surprised by this behavior moved back.

"We're going to hunt Laura". Wolverine announced heading for the exit.

"Ok..." Black haired clone agreed.

A few minutes later, Logan and Laura approached the funfair driving the jeep. The man had jeans and leather, brown jacket on himself and his companion was wearing black trousers, shirt and bovver boots. The streets emptied because of the late hour and cool rain started to fall down from the sky. The girl noticed two figures walking on the pavement, bathed in a beam of light from the street lamp post.

"They are there... Jessica and Hope..."

"They missed their bus..." Logan replied and stopped the car by his friends. He got off and called mutant girls. They were glad, because the night rain became stronger and colder.

"Jump in the car. You caused yourselves trouble with such an action. Jessica... you'll be driving. You are supposed to go straight to the Institute".

"I hope so." The girl answered touching her hair getting wet. When both mutants were in Logan's jeep, X- 23 wanted to go to the streets. Logan stopped her.

"Plans changed. You're coming back to the School with girls ".

"We were going to hunt..." The girl was not very pleased.

"You must protect girls on the road. Your task is now more important than mine". Laura hesitated for a moment. She wasn't satisfied with the fact that Logan turned her away from the action. However she decided to do as he ordered her. The car with girls disappeared around the bend of the road and Wolverine stayed on the pavement in streams of the rain which was transformed into the real, unpleasantly cold downpour. The man slowly went toward the funfair. Three girls approached the school. Hope told Laura about the event in the park and the failure in localizing the mysterious assailant and the man who helped Megan.

"If they are somewhere in the vicinity, Logan will find them. If not, he will track their smell and go directly to the place in which they hid themselves." X- 23 replied.

"I know about it Laura... He is the best at what he does. But I think it'd better if somebody went with him. We don't know who these people were and who can be involved in this case". After the last sentence of the girl silence fell. Jessica was busy with looking at the road didn't join in the conversation.

"Listen... How Logan will know who to search?" Hope asked.

"The smell... smell of the woman and this guy stayed on Pixie. As a matter of fact I also remembered it." Laura replied.

"And you know who they could be, are there some memories... you were after all..." Laura became sad. Hope guessed that she should not bring such a topic up.

"I know very well what I was created to. And therefore I'm reliable one. The smell of this woman is a smell of the death..." The silence fell again. Trance turned her head away in the direction of the window. She was looking at streets filling with water, not being able to get rid of anxious feeling about Megan. Laura looked at Preview. She opened her mouth, wanting to say something. She broke after the minute of silence.

"Jessica..."

"Yes?"

"Thanks."

"What do you mean?"

"Thanks for CDs which you borrowed me on Monday".

"Ah... it's about it? They're nice, right?"

"Yes. They are." Silence had fallen once again, disrupted only by the noise of the engine and the blows of rain drops hitting the car body and the panes.

Logan crossed the gate of the amusement park. It was already late and more intense rain was falling down, so the generality of people had left the park. Thanks to that the mutant could move in the surroundings more freely. Having smells of the woman and students from school in the memory he decided to follow them until they were still recognizable in the downpour flooding everything. Passing by the lane with trees he noticed the crowd of people and the ambulance sweeping neighborhood with impulses of the light. Interested, he decided to come closer. As it turned out a few doctors were fighting for the life of the clown lying on the very middle of the pavement. A balloon in the shape of cat's head entangled into branches of tree was getting wet on the rain. Logan ignored the crowd and he moved into the way forward. In the end he reached the vacated palace of fears in which the drama of Megan and Mark had taken place. The man went inside the attraction. He was walking in the darkness listening to drops of rain hitting wooden walls of the building but the smell of decay and dust struck his nostrils. At some point other smell reached his nose - the same which she smelled on red haired mutant. He turned violently noticing the pentagram turning white on the wall. He went up closer and in the same moment the unshaven man in the raincoat turned up behind his back.

"You're getting into hot water." The stranger announced. Logan noticing him unsheathed his claws with the intention of attacking. The man touched his forehead with the lightning speed. Wolverine felt that his senses had been overloaded with the flowing in stream of experiences, pointless images sounds, smells and tastes. After a moment his brain overflowed with such a great amount of data and the man fell down unconscious to the floor. The unshaven guy had looked at him for a brief lapse, and then he moved in direction known only for himself.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

One day after dramatic events which young mutants came across in the park of entertainment Emma Frost got the strange call from Megan Gwynn's father. The man insisted that his daughter left the school for young mutants although he and his wife really wanted her to be enrolled just year earlier. Emma called Megan and Shan, the advisor of her group to her study. Both teachers waited for their student who was late for the meeting.

"She have to forgot that she has some duties here. I will visit her telepathically, right away". Emma Frost said.

"Don't get upset Emma, she's always late for classes, training in Danger Room, it's normal. But she's a good girl". Shan said calmly.

"I can see that you aren't able to implement the discipline amongst your charges. Perhaps it's high time that somebody else deals with their group?" Emma replied maliciously. The young Vietnamese geared up in order to defend herself against the verbal attack, but the door of the study opened in the same moment. Megan and her boy Mark entered the room. Emma was surprised seeing the young mutant.

"What are you doing here, Mark? I didn't call you". She asked.

"The matter concerns Megan and it's urgent and important. Therefore I cannot leave Megan alone now. Not after what happened yesterday". DJ announced.

"Please let him stay". Pixie said coming up to the desk. Frost came into pensive mood looking out of the slightly opened window.

"Ok. Sit down because the time is flying." She said loudly. Young mutants accomplished her request. Megan was very anxious, she had yesterday's event in the memory all the time and she was certain, that meeting with Frost concerned that matter.

"Megan, your parents are taking you from our school. I talked to your father. He said he wanted you to come back to your house in Wales this week". The teacher announced calmly. Megan's eyes became big from amazement. She got up from the chair.

"What?" She asked. Mark touched her shoulder, telling her with this gesture to sit down and calm down until she learns of everything.

"I repeated only what I heard from your parents, Megan". Emma replied.

"They cannot do it to me now! I have a lot more to learn here!" The girl continued.

"If that's true, why they didn't call me earlier! Why they didn't tell me about it! I have the right to make my own decisions!" She added.

"Megan, I don't know why you learnt about it from me rather than from them, I don't understand their intention..."

"Understand Megan, the decision belongs to your parents, the school cannot oppose it". Shan cut in the conversation. Pink haired girl clenched fists. Tears appeared in corners of her eyes.

"It's not fair..." She whispered. Mark got up from the chair. He looked straight in Emmas Frost's eyes. "Why did they call exactly day after Megan was attacked. Doesn't it seem strange to you?" He asked with anger in his voice.

"Is it possible that they somehow learnt about what happened yesterday?" Pixie asked.

"I don't know Megan." Shan answered looking at the direction of the blonde. Emma lowered the head. "Nobody informed them of what had happened to you." The woman replied.

"I realy have to leave?" The girl asked although she knew very well what reply to expect.

"Yes Megan, I can do nothing. You should start packing up." Emma didn't want to give the girl false hopes.

"And what if it is some trick? Maybe they weren't her parents? Perhaps it was one of the people who tried to get her yesterday? Can we permit her to go on such a long travel knowing what happened yesterday?" Mark got up from the chair once again. He was very upset with the fact that in a few days he will have to say goodbye to his girlfriend and he won't see her perhaps even forever. Concern about Megan's safety was only a pretext for the fight to keep her by his side. Emma was silent for a moment and at last she answered him.

"The safety of my students is the most important. I won't let Megan to travel travel alone, not after what happened. Shan will go with her and she will walk her straight to home of her parents. If anything seems suspected to her, she will be able to summon one of X-Men's squads".

"And do you think that Shan alone will be enough? Perhaps somebody else should guard her also". DJ added.

"Do you want to become her bodyguard?" The woman asked. Mark was glad. He looked at Megan noticing the smile appearing on her rosy mouth.

"Of course, I do!" He answered being sure about his words. Pixie caught his hand and she smiled to him frankly. However she grew more serious after a moment, she looked at her headmistress with eyes expressing anxiety.

"Do you think it can be a trick?" She asked.

"I don't know Megan, I must be prepared for everything. Particularly after Logan didn't come back from yesterday's mission." The woman said the last sentence with cold voice which caused, that faces of young mutants paled and their hands clenched more strongly. When members of Paragons group left the study of Emma Frost, Shan leaned over the desk looking at Emma's face.

"We cannot let that something happen to this girl or any of her friends." She said.

"I know it very well, but the school would be in trouble, if we tried to stop Megan by force. Let us hope that the attack was imposed at the mutant rather than specifically at Megan and we will catch somebody who was responsible for it quickly". Shan prepared to leave the room. She turned around in order to look at the blonde the last time.

"And I have high hopes, that we made a good decision". She replied sadly and closed the door behind herself.

Impulses from the outside world started slowly coming to Wolverine's mind: smells of grass and sand, fresh air and asphalt from nearby road, sounds of cars' engines, the music coming from breaking up radio mixed with sounds made by glasses and dishes being struck against each other, touch of grass and tiny pebbles on tips of fingers. The man opened his eyes and the blue of the sky and the white of clouds moving on it were the first view which greeted him. The mutant rested his hands on the head and the stream of thoughts started to form inside his skull, merging into logical and possible to interpret causally consecutive sequence. Strange feeling overflowing the mind, seeking somebody, streams of rain pouring on his body and the smell which he remembered and which he had to find amongst hundreds of others. Logan remembered everything - the training in Danger Room with his "daughter", Emma's information about the attack on students, seeking the smell and the mysterious man who surprised and defeated him. How was it possible to let be defeated so easily? He thought sitting on the grass. At that very moment he noticed that his claws had still been protruding, so he sheathed them inside his arms, going up from the floor. Everything what surrounded him was alien to him, completely different from the palace of fears which he visited before the loss of consciousness. He stood in the middle of the wilderness crossed by the motorway wet with the rain and some small, dirty gas station stood a few metres farther. The man went a few steps in its direction and he stood up as if he was suddenly turned into the stone. "Welcome in Illinois" - the inscription seen on the faded sign standing near the building annouced cheerfully.

Megan was packing all her things into two passengers suitcases lying on her bed. She was furious at everyone around, Emma Frost, her parents, herself. Her malaise was apparently in her every move and the tightened mouth. The girl had been wiping her eyes every couple of minutes in order not to burst out crying. Mark went into the room, he stood in the doorway and he was looking at the friend packing her clothes without words. Megan tolerated it, but in the end his strange behaviour irritated her.

"You came to help me! Get down to work!" She shouted reaching for the next batch of clothes.

"I cannot. I won't be contributing to walking away of my girl". He replied smiling lightly.

"In that case get lost from here, because I'm busy!" Megan replied closing one of her suitcases angrily. Mark went into the room, he came up to Pixie and touched her shoulders. The girl tried to to break free from him at first, but feeling his warm hands, she resigned from this intention very quickly.

"Meg, you can't imagine how hard it is for me..." The boy said with quiet voice.

"Please, don't start or else I'll burst out crying right away." Megan whispered closing her eyes and simultaneously turning in the direction of the young mutant.

"How could they do this for me?" The girl asked, not expecting the logical reply.

"I don't know Megan, but I won't give up. I'll go there with you and I'll convince them that your place is at our school. They'll have to agree to let you come back." DJ embraced his friend and she cuddled up to his body.

"Thank you..." She whispered. The boy bent over her and kissed her cheeks and the neck one moment later. Pixie embraced him more firmly, pressing her body to his trunk.

"I am afraid, after what happened yesterday in the funfair..." She announced looking straight in his eyes.

"Don't think about it, it's already a past and we don't have to come back to it. The X-Men will deal with the ones who attacked us. They will find them and punish them, I believe in it..." Mark tried to calm mutant girl, but it didn't come off best for him, so he stopped talking. Instead of it he hugged her closer to himself and he started kissing her neck, hair and face. At one point he stopped, he moved his mouth close to the mouth of the girl, kissed her strongly and after a moment he did exactly the same, but even more passionately. Megan allowed for his every move without the moment of thought. She dropped one of things for packing, which fell down on the floor very softly. The girl sat down on the bed and asked the boy to do exactly the same by her tempting eyesight. Mark embraced her, kissed her mouth again and later he put her on the soft bed with one delicate move. He bent over her kissing her on the neck, trunk and shoulders, touching her wings, arms, stopping on her delicate hands. He pressed them firmly and looked in the girl's eyes whispering: "I love you". Right after it he kissed her lips again.

"They won't take you away from me". He added in thoughts.

"I swear I won't let them to do it".

Logan was inside the bar built nearby gas station in the very heart of nowhere. Using the old phone standing at the exit, he tried to get through to Xavier's Institute in order to tell them where he was and how he got there. The place was tight and smoked out, a big fan was spinning at the ceiling and the breaking radio station broadcast the morning programme. Apart from Logan, three people were inside: two bearded fat persons sitting at a desk with glass of whiskey in hands and superannuated madam with hair dyed on blonde and strong make-up who was a waitress, barmaid and perhaps even the owner of the entire petrol station. Bearded men were talking extremely loudly, laughing with whisky voice what irritated Wolverine very much. At the end the mutant got through to the school. Emma Frost was glad hearing his voice, but simultaneously she knew that something had not been ok.

"What happened Logan?" She asked.

"You must send Blackbird". The man announced.

"What? Where are you?"

"In the very heart of the wilderness, on some motorway in Illinois."

"Illinois? What are you doing there?" Emma was surprised.

"I would like to know it. Ah, there is still one thing. I must talk to Laura. It's important that we act quickly". when Logan finished the last sentence, Emma started telepathically searching the school in order to find X- 23.

The room was dark and hot, it y was probabl part of some building vacated many years ago. Wallpapers on its walls were yellowed and scraped off and panelling lying on the floor was grey from dust gathered throughout the years. There was no furniture there and a flowerpot with withered plants was the only decoration. At the very centre of the room, a graphic pattern in the form of the pentagram was shinning portentously and the woman was lying inside it. She was the same person who attacked young mutants the day before. Her body was already completely healed, there was no gunshot wounds on it. The pale girl was immobilised with some unseen force and the word of hate was written all over her face. Few strides farther, the unshaven man in the raincoat stood in the corner of the room. He was smoking cigarette, looking at his prisoner every couple of minutes, he was holding the decorated sword in the hand. He came toward the woman, threw the cigarette to the floor, close to the face of the girl and he extinguished it with sole of his shoe. He squatted by stranger, looking into her eyes.

"Let me ask you once again: who are you?" He asked. The woman was silent, she was not even looking at the man.

"Can I ask you differently, who did send you? Who does wish the death of Megan Gwynn?"

"Go to Hell," The pale figure hissed.

"First I'll send you there, but before it happens, the never-ending agony is awaiting you here on the Earth. Unless you'll be cooperating with me. I'll ask once again. Who are you? Who did sent you here?" The girl turned away her head, she smiled to herself. The unshaven man raised the decorated sword over head head.

"Enchanted cold iron. Almost as old as our Old Homeland, I know very well how your kind is afraid of being hurt by it. I know very well what pain you feel wounded by it. I'm not an executioner or a sadist. I want to spare you suffering woman, it'll be enough, if you tell me who did sent you. Who does wish the death of Megan Gwynn. What are you doing here so far from your native land?" The man was irritated more and more, sweat was flowing down his face.

"What Dark Fairy is doing beyond the ocean!" He shouted. The woman laughed, she looked at the face of her torturer.

"Dark Fairy?" she asked and bursted out laughing again.

"What is so funny!" The man screamed hitting the women's head with the sword.

"From your naivety, Geralt, from your ignorance about what is really happening around you". Geralt was unusually surprised by the fact that she knew his name. He gripped the hilt of his sword even stronger.

"Why did you want to kill Megan Gwynn!" He screamed loudest he was able.

"It isn't information for ears of the mortal, you will never learn it!" The man didn't withstand, he raised the sword above the head of pale girl and next he pushed the sword with all his might piercing her shoulder. The woman howled with pain, and then Geralt pressed the sword even more strongly, moving the weapon back and forth so that it went through the skin of the woman, her muscles and was stuck into the floor which was under her. He did everything in the silence, feeling no satisfaction from it. The girl screamed, convulsions shook her body and the streams of sweat started to flow across her face. She started cursing her torturer in some ancient language.

"I won't stop, dark Tylwyth Teg. I won't stop with one hand. I will hit all your limbs, if you don't tell me the truth. If I have to I'll cut them, one by one and you'll never recover because of the magic of this sword. I'll destroy your bodily coating, you apparition, I will stamp your ghost with the seal in this building far away from your native realms". Geralt didn't joke, his nerves were on the edge of the endurance and he felt like getting rid of his prisoner once and for all. However he had to control himself, for the good of Megan and the ones which were close to her. The pale woman was in her death throes, she knew that she must somehow rescue her life.

"You don't know what is at risk..." She whispered. -

"They are everywhere, in every nook of this world. They've prepared for the day which is supposed to take place for years, the entire homeland is swarming from their agents. They are put to sleep in bodies of normal, average people. Soon they will be ready to wake up and Gwynn will become the tool of the massacre in their hands.

"Who?" Geralt asked.

"The ones who according to you are my brothers and sisters..."

"Dark Tylwyth Teg? Aren't you one of them?" The man was surprised, a pressure on his sword reduced, bringing temporary relief to the girl.

"You don't know how blind you are... but although you humiliated me and imprisoned me against my will, my mission will be fulfilled. We never act on our own, we are travelling all over lands by pairs so that one of us always performs a task, when the second will fall. My shadow, my alter ego will approach Gwynn and he will do what he was ordered to do..." Geralt went pale. He swore under his breath standing up. He took the sword out of woman's body in one sudden move, not paying heed that as a result of this he incised her muscles and injured the bone. He headed towards the exit, but after a dozen seconds he turned back. He wiped the fragment of the pentagram off the floor.

"I'm not withou a heart, Tylwyth Teg. You're free, remember it". He said and he went out leaving the girl writhing in pain on the floor. Running up the stairs of the old building he clenched fists with anger.

"I sent him with Wolverine, bloody hell! Now when is needed!"

Booking the sit in the aeroplane flying to British islands took Emma Frost only a moment. The woman got the next phone call from Megan's father, who urged her and insisted that his daughter set off for the family house as soon as possible, he even refused to talk with the teacher promising that he will pay for the travel alone. He didn't reveal the reason of his decision and he didn't agree to talk with daughter, therefore Emma decided not to talk about the attack on her student and the strange disappearing of one of X-Men members. Paragons as well as Andrea, Megan's room-mate from the dorm, gathered in the corridor of the institute ready for the parting with their friend and seeing her off to the airport. Only Megan and her boyfriend were absent.

"I cannot believe she is getting back home." Hope said, looking at her friends.

"Me too, but it is even worse for Megan. She has been walking mad since she learnt about it, she didn't even want me to help her to pack things". Andrea sadly announced.

"You must let her deal with it the way she wants it". Jessica also joined the conversation.

"I know about it, but I should help her now." The blonde finished.

"Our group won't be the same anymore..." Ben spoke looking out of the window at clouds moving on the white sky.

"Megan was our heart". He added.

"Don't talk about her as if she already died!" Nicholas shouted at his friend. After a moment he calmed down and became sad.

"She would be excellent X-Man, if she only got the chance". He announced not looking at the rest of mutants. In the same moment, Laura Kinney came up to the group. She noticed Jessica and quickly came to her. She touched her shoulder.

"Mission". She told her to the ear.

"What? Laura, what are you talking about?" Jessica was surprised very much. Her friends also looked at each other completely not knowing what their colleague wanted. X-23 walked with Preview away a few steps.

"Laura, what's your problem?" Jessica asked breaking free from the hug of the friend.

"Wolverine. He called Emma Frost". X-23 announced.

"Was he? It's excellent! What about him?"

"He is in Illinois".

"What?"

"It doesn't matter. The mission is much more important. The safety of Megan depend on it". Jessica looked at her group implying them that she will return to them in a minute, as soon as she hears what Laura wanted to say. Logan's green-eyed clone moved closer to her, like being afraid that somebody eavesdrops on details of the plan she was supposed to tell her in a minute.

" Wolverine examining the surroundings was a witness of the interesting event. Some man in the park of the entertainment had a heart attack and doctors from the emergency service fought for his life. Logan didn't keep an eye on it then, but today he remembered that the very same smell which was on Megan was also around this man. The smell of the person who tried to kill her. The mission is to find that man and get the information out of him. Wolverine told me to choose anybody from X-Men to aid me".

"Anybody? But I'm not from X-Men". Jessica protested.

"Unimportant. Your abilities can be useful, if it turned out that for some reason learning something from that man would be impossible ". Preview fell into a pensive mood. She knew that she would hear something what won't appeal to her. Laura continued.

"If it turned out that it wouldn't be possible to talk with him, or he won't be alive, then perhaps your touch will be the only solution".

"Nice..." Jessica thought seeing herself in the hospital mortuary searching for the corpse which has the smell of some woman on itself.

"Laura, I know that it's very important, but I'm going with the group to the airport in order to say goodbye to Megan. I cannot travel with you to the city".

"We'll go there exactly for Megan's safety. Go say goodbye to Megan now and I'll wait for you before the school." After the last sentence Laura turned her back on all assembled company and she moved toward the exit door. Jessica looked at Hope who observed the entire conversation deciding to grant X- 23 request.

"I'm going to Megan now. Perhaps I and Laura will find some track which we missed in the night". "Ok, take care". Trance replied smiling.

When Jessica went upstairs to the hall of residence of the school in which Megan's room was located, she noticed that Mark Shepard was walking on the corridor. The girl immediately came up to him, but he only cast a brief glance at her.

"Are you going to Megan? Better turn back. She doesn't feel like talking to anybody". The boy spoke to her.

"Were you with her?"

"Yes, I helped her pack and earlier... I said goodbye to her... but a few minutes ago she told me she wanted to be alone and threw me out from the room".

"I understand, but I must see her now. I can't appear at the airport".

"Ok, please yourself. But I warned you". DJ replied and moved peacefully toward a stairwell. Jessica knocked to the door of Pixie's room, but because of the fact that nobody answered her she decided to come in. She noticed Megan sitting at the desk, looking at Dazler posters hanged on the wall. She tried to say something, but mutant girl turned head in her direction.

"Jessica, leave me alone. Please." She said and tears shone in her eyes.

"Megan... I must talk with you now. I won't be able to see you off to the airport. I wanted to say goodbye now". Black-haired girl leaned against the wooden desk of her friend.

"I'm going to the funfair to learn something about the ones who attacked you". She added after a moment. Pixie cheered up, she got up from the chair and stood next to Preview.

"Jessica! It's dangerous..."

"Calm down, I'll be fine... but I didn't come here to talk about something like that". Megan became silent again and she sat down on the chair. She lowered the head covering her face with hands. "Jessica, it's so unfair. I was happy here, with you, with Hope, with boys..." The silence fell again. "with Mark..." Jessica approached red haired mutant girl, she embraced her gently, touched her hair and then cheeks, washing a tear away from it. Megan grabbed her shirt, she gripped it strongly. She didn't want to cry, she wanted absolutely to show that she was strong, but it came to her with more and more difficulty.

"Megan... I know very well what it means when somebody is taking you from the person you love by force". Preview whispered in a trembling voice stroking rosy hair of the friend.

"Thank you for everything... Thank you that in my first school day you tried to treat me like the friend". She added.

Geralt geared himself up to leave the area full of breaking down buildings, in which he had tried to take the information out from his prisoner. He was angry at himself, that he had been forced to use the sword. He didn't like to inflict pain on others, even if it was an absolute necessity. Moreover, every use of the object on which the charm was put caused, that he had been overflowed with the energy of lands which he hated more and more. However it didn't make any difference at that moment, he knew that he had to act quickly or the person who he promised to defend could be hurt. He overlooked broad facts, that murderers sent from the world of Eternal Twilight didn't act on their own, but they always complemented each other, the time was working to his disadvantage. The man had to ask for the help the being who disgustsed him and whose very presence aroused anger in him, the creature who became his servant when he had crossed the borders of strange lands with the two of his acquaintances. He stopped in the middle of two roads crossing at the right angle, he spread hands out listening closely to sounds pursuing from the distance, from other places and other times.

"Appear Traveller! I need you!" He shouted raising both hands above the head. A dazzle turned up in front of him and a dark shape loomed into the view at the same moment. Geralt drew a gun just in case, you never know how his companion could react to the emergency call. The shape started waving, and became the form of the coyote as black as the night - the skin which the Traveller dressed for that particular meeting.

"Do you wish my help again, although it didn't pass a lot of time from the last time?" The animal asked with human voice.

"The matter is very serious, you must open the corridor for me. There is no time!" The coyote looked at the man yawning lazily and he lay down on sand closing his eyes.

"And what I will have from the fact that I will create the gate for you?"

"Bloody hell!" Geralt swore in his thoughts.

"He starts his games again".

"We don't have the time! We can talk about it when I'll perform my task, ok?" The coyote sat down on the sand, he was silent carefully looking at the reaction of the man. It entertained him very much. "Rules are rules, payment first, work later". He replied after almost two minutes. Geralt clenched fists, he felt like taking the gun out and shot the entire ammo into the poor louse, or better cutting it in two equal parts with his sword. Howerever he could not do it and he regretted it very much. Resigned, he decided to ask what the traveller demanded for his services.

"Yeah okay, what do you want?"

"You must think it through yourself..." The coyote announced looking at the man with the flash of satisfaction in eyes.

Jessica and Laura reached the park in which the drama of their friends from the group happened. Girls quickly, thanks to the help of employees of the park, found the place in which Logan could see the dying man. Laura decided to search surroundings with her sharpened senses, while her friend playing the student of the journalism entered into the short conversation with the man dressed up as the large egg walking on human legs.

"It's so sad, I knew him since I've started working here. He was conscientious, honest and he was able to take care of children, being a clown was his entire life. I don't know, whether I would manage to work so many years as the amuser. I'm already thinking about throwing this idiotic disguise and deal with something else".

"I understand..." Jessica replied, not being interested in the story of the boy. The fat woman in pink ruffled dress joined the chat. She cried wiping eyes with the white handkerchief.

"It came so suddenly! Who would expect it!" She was speaking with the squeaking voice. Preview didn't want to listen to friends of the deceased, therefore she said goodbye and went in the direction of the lane, on which Laura stood.

"What have you learnt?" X- 23 asked seeing approaching Preview.

"The one about which Wolverine told you died at night. I know nothing more, he had a heart attack. And what about you?"

"The rain already washed the majority of tracks away, but I'm sure of one thing, she was here. The woman who I was supposed to find".

"What will we do?"

"The corpse was probably taken to the closest mortuary. We'll go there and we'll learn more". Laura announced. She acted precisely the way she was taught, she accomplished the next mission.

"How are going to do it? How will we get inside? And even if we can, what next?" Jessica didn't share her enthusiasm completely.

"I know what I'm doing. It's important that the mission succeeds". X- 23 replied going toward the car park. Girls came inside the car very quickly. Jessica was more and more upset with behavior of her companion, and particularly with the fact that everything what she did was a mission for her. Simultaneously her thoughts were with Megan and the rest of the group, she was looking at trees and houses flashing behind the pane.

"Laura..." She spaid after minutes of silence.

"Yes?"

"Shouldn't we ask somebody from the X-Men for help? We don't know what we're going into".

"No, Wolverine gave this mission to me and I chose you for the aid".

"Wolverine recalled nothing about breaking into the mortuary...what will we do there, will we cut this corpse up?"

"If it is necessary, yes". X- 23 replied seriously. Jessie turned away her head toward the pane and then silence fell again between two girls. The mutant was thinking about something all the time, therefore she broke the silence again.

"Laura, why did you chose me?" She asked.

"I explained you this in the institute. Your abilities can turn out to be useful".

"Ah so..." Jessie sighed closing her eyes. Laura continued.

"Besides... I like you..." She whispered having her gren eyes directed at the street. Preview smiled.

"Becasue we're similar, namely we like the same music, the style of clothes..." she said.

"No." X- 23 said gripping the steering wheel more firmly.

"We're completely different." She added.

"But I'm enjoying your company..."

Jessica wanted to talk longer, but second mutant hushed her up saying that they will reach the target of their travel in a minute. Girls were in front of the hospital and they stopped the car in the local car park. The building was very big, new or newly renovated, a quite large crowd gathered there. Groups of people visiting their relatives in hospital went in the direction of the entrance gate, one could see also a few doctors dressed in white aprons. Mutant girls found themselves in the reception unnoticed by nobody. There was crowded inside also, therefore girls could merge with the flocks of people.

"Go talk with somebody and I will look around here". Laura suggested. Jessica noticed some fat black woman, nurse and came up to her.

"I'm sorry, I have one question..."

"Yes?" The woman replied with a deep voice.

"I heard that one of employees of the park had been brought here, supposedly he died here. I want to make sure whether that's true..."

"And who are you to ask questions about such things?" The black woman asked looking with disgust at the black shirt, trousers and bovver boots of the girl.

"I... I've been coming to play to this park since childhood. And he has always been so nice to me..." The girl answered lowering the head. Fat lady calmed down, she put her hands on Jessie's shoulder.

"I see... unfortunately that's true. The clown was brought here last night. I'm very sorry, nothing could be done for him."

Meanwhile Laura was walking along the hospital corridor looking all around. She observed the positions of lifts and stairwells, places in which she came across all sorts of people and the ones where only employees of the hospital could enter. She found also a little storeroom in which white coats hung. After the finished reconnaissance, the girl came back to the main waiting room of the hospital. "Jessica!" She shouted seeing Preview standing in the vicinity. Black-haired girl apologised to the nurse and she came up to X- 23.

"His body is here, I just got to know it".

"Excellent, I searched the area. They're letting only the staff into the mortuary, so we must change. I could see the place in which there are stands with aprons. We'll dress up as medical students..."

"What?" Jessica asked trying to keep up with Laura. They both came into little dressing room and X- 23 locked the door so that nobody disturbed them. Girls dressed in aprons.

"And what if they catch us? Do you know the medicine so well to play the student?" Jessica asked. "Yes. In the Facility, I had been learning anatomy and physiology since I was 8". Laura replied honestly. Mutants stopped on the corridor.

"Bodies are transported to the mortuary by that lift." X- 23 pointed at the big, metal door.

"But this road is too crowded, we'll get there by the evacuation stairwell which are usually located in such buildings at ends of the corridors, in places where there is smallest crowd". Laura caught Jessie by the hand and headed deeper inside the hospital. Girls reached the wing of the building in which additional stairwell was located, it turned out that it had been padlocked.

"Now what?" Preview asked.

"Stay here and guard me". X- 23 replied. She took two metal claws out of the right hand and got rid of the padlock defending the access to the underground with one fast move. The old metal of the object didn't have a chance with blades made of adamantium. Mutant girls went down the stairs to the bottom of the building, where Jessica found the switch of the light. As it turned out the light bulb hanging on one of walls was the only lighting in the cramped corridor. The place was dirty and cluttered up with old cardboard boxes, nobody ventured into those areas, even cleaning ladies. An iron lung, out of order and withdrawn from use a long time ago stood by one of walls. Jessica looked at the device similar to the barrel with the interest.

"Terrifying". She announced.

"Terrifying? You didn't see medical devices in the Facility". Laura replied. Girls soon came across the next closed door which were defeated thanks to talents of the Wolverine's clone and they found themselves in a new part of the hospital, where the mortuary was located. The corridor was lighted with the cold lighting and because of that, the place was unusually depressing for everyone inside. Laura, having made sure that nobody was coming, entered the room in which steel refrigerators for corpses and tables for performing an autopsy stood. Jessica searched the switch of the light, but X- 23 stopped her.

"We must act quickly, somebody can appear here".

"Ok." Preview replied looking with concern at everything what was around her. Laura closed her eyes seeking the smell which she remembered yesterday. She found it, unusually faint, it came from one of refrigerators. The girl opened the door of the device with fast move and she pulled the "drawer" with corpse of a middle-aged man. It was the man of great physique, traces of the clown make-up were still seen on his lifeless face.

"Oh!" Jessica shouted turning her head away.

"Jessie, everything depends on you now. Do not fear, you can't be infected with anything". X- 23 said pointing at the corpse lying motionless on the cold metal.

"It's easy for you to say." Jessica replied and came up to the refrigerator. She extended a hand ahead of herself simultaneously closing her eyes and tightening the mouth. She moved the hand close to body and touched it gently trying to notice some vision, track from the past or the future of the dead person or somebody who was directly connected with him in last hours of his life. The cold of his skin caused that Jessica had felt unpleasant shiver. After a moment, images started flowing into her head: park of entertainment submerged with night, laugh of children when the man gave them balloons, cold wind heralding coming of the downpour, mysterious pale woman, her touch bringing the chest pain. Preview concentrated on this part of the vision, combining it with the experience from the day before. She saw the laughing woman and frightened Megan but after a moment she noticed the man with long, fair hair standing close by, keeping the golden sword reflecting sun's rays. Scenery of the vision changed and the girl was in the middle of the airport, noticing that the man with the golden sword waited there for somebody. Megan - Jessica thought getting back to reality.

"Jessica, everything all right?" Laura asked seeing the friend stunned with what she saw a moment ago.

"The second one... there is another murderer! We must warn Megan as soon as possible!" She shouted catching every breath with an effort.

"Let's get out of here". X- 23 replied simultaneously closing the fridge with corpse of the man.

Geralt was furious. He looked at the coyote standing before him thinking about his idiotic games which he played even when someone's life was in a danger. He thought about the moment, when he won't need his services and he will finally get even with him sending him somewhere to the very bottom of the deepest hell. He clenched fists and shouted out straight into the eyes of the animal.

"Okay, you won! I will open next corridors for you! We have no time for the stupid games! I will open the american trails for you! Just act!"

"I can see that we understand one another very well again". The Traveller replied lowering the head lightly.

"Will you manage to find Gwynn?" Geralt asked.

"Of course, you are offending me..." The coyote was indignant. At the same moment a bright light, the portal to the tunnel built apart from the time and space turned up behind his body.

"What are you waiting for? The gate won't be opened forever!" The Traveller yelled to urge the man observing an unusual occurrence with the interest.

On the airport, all Paragons except Jessica said goodbye to Megan going to her family house in Wales with Shan and Mark. Each of young mutants believed that the strange behaviour of her parents would find the rational explanation and the girl will quickly come back to the school.

"Take care Megan". Ben said.

"Don't give up and fight for what's yours". Nicholas added.

"I'll miss you". Andrea announced and she hugged her room-mate.

"Let us walk away, or else we'll be late". Mark urged his girlfriend.

"Thank you... for everything." Megan replied walking away toward the terminal. The policeman came up to trio of mutants. He was a quite tall man and a curly hair of the golden colour stuck out from under his hat.

"I'm sorry, but on account of the safety, every mutant flying away must be examined." He looked at Megan and her wings shimmering in the sun.

"You must go with me to the expert in field the homo superior who will judge your threat level to the voyage. It won't take more than 5 minutes, we must know whether you are associated with some terrorist group".

"What?" Shan was offended.

"How dare you treat her like this!" The boy shouted and his hand sparkled with energy gathered from his own voice. Megan gripped his hand in order to calm him.

"Calm. 5 minutes of delay won't be a tragedy for us. I'll go with you..." The girl announced.

"Thank you for cooperation". The policeman said pointing at the direction into which he was supposed to come off together with mutant girl. Pixie and the man keeping her company reached the small door placed in less crowded part of the airport and going through it they came outside the building. Megan noticed that she had been somewhere in the backstreet, in typically technical part of an airport. She could see wooden boxes, loading devices, panes and metal fragments probably from the last repair of the terminal and aeroplanes standing on the runway in the distance. After a few minutes of the walk the girl became worried seeing that she is diverging far from the part of an airport in which people stayed.

"Are you sure that we're going in a good direction?" She asked. The policeman didn't answer her, he was walking in the silence , leaving the girl a few steps behind. A rose petal fell on the girl's head. Megan looked around looking for the plant from which it supposed to fall down, without any success. More falling petals turned up in the nieghborhood of mutant girl looking like some strange, magic rain. Terror appeared in Pixie's heart, she was afraid of her own life, she knew that such a remarkable phenomenon could not predict anything good. She noticed the man standing before herself, but he wasn't the policeman anymore. He had long, golden hair and pointed ears and was wearing blue costume looking like the historical uniform, his cape was blowing in the breeze. The stranger took out the sword made entirely of auriferous material out of the scabbard.

"Megan Gwynn, prepare for your death". He announced smiling to the girl.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The long-haired man was looking at Megan' frightened eyes smiling widely. The girl realized that she had been in really dangerous position. The man who stood before her and threatened to kill her wasn't ordinary human and if his abilities were exactly the same as the woman's, whom Pixie had fought in the park of entertainment, she had barely any chance in the duel. She turned around in order to escape or try to call the help. Unfortunately, her opponent was too fast. He was next to the girl before she even managed to think what to do farther.

"Don't try to fight with me Megan Gwynn, you don't have the smallest chances. If you are polite, I promise you that your death will be fast and painless." The man with golden hair informed her smiling again.

"Who are you? What do you want from me? I haven't done anything to you!" Megan shouted and shinning tears appeared in her eyes.

"Personally, I am not harboring any grudge against you. I am not interested in you, because you are a woman, I can see nothing interesting in you. Let us say that generally speaking being born is your only sin." The man answered unusually politely.

"You are an anomaly and such anomalies as you are a danger for our world. Forgive me. " The man with golden hair raised the sword and directed it at mutant girl.

"I'm not going to be defeated easily!" Megan spread her wings throwing the cloud of hallucinogenic dust towards the murderer. The man remained adamant. He waited calmly out until the dust dispersed or fell down on the pavement and then moved towards the horrified and disorientated Pixie again.

"You are probably surprised that your powder doesn't work on me. Your drugs don't work on somebody who is enveloped in spells in the entire life!" Long-haired man laughed raising both hands above the head.

"Let us see how you will handle my gale!" He shouted and hundreds of whirling rose petals appeared around his body. Carried with a magic hurricane, scraps went towards the girl with a huge speed. The breeze was too strong for Megan to cope with it. She was thrown a few meters away and hit the wooden box standing close by.

Meanwhile, Hope Abbot answered the telephone call from her friend Jessica. Preview told her about her vision and about the fact that some fatal threat was supposed to lurk at the airport. Trance quickly communicated the message to the rest of the group.

"Listen, Jessie and Laura learnt something about the ones who tried to kill Megan. Somebody very dangerous is supposed to wait for her here, at the airport." Mark hearing words of the friend went pale and his hands clenched into fists.

"This police officer..." He whispered and ran in the same direction, in which his girlfriend walked away a one moment earlier.

"Mark!" Shan tried to stop him, but without success. She turned to Hope.

"Hope! Search the area in the astral form!"

"Yes!" Trance closed her eyes and a spectral, translucent figure, being a manifestation of the girl's mind left her body. Hope ghost form rose high above the airfield, so that it was easier to see her friend, irrespective of where she was. In the same moment, she noticed that in the sky, a bright line was rushing with the incredible speed. Not thinking too long, she approached the unusual occurrence noticing that silhouettes of two beings were glued to the straight line propagating through the space. She recognized the outline of the man in the raincoat and the coyote accompanying him.

"You won't get her!" She thought recalling Jessica's words about the murderer who was supposed to attack Megan at the airport. She was on the trajectory parallel to the shining line. She launched the big energy discharge towards travelers.

The elf with golden hair raised the sword above his head, gearing himself up to give Pixie the death blow. The girl tried to get up, but she unfortunately could not, because she was stunned with a strong gale of rose petals and achy from butting against the hard object.

"I hope that you will fall down elegantly. I would not like you to destroy my clothes with your blood. You know, my shirt is made from material which was lost on this Earth ages ago." The man said gazing at Megan's black eyes looking at him with a great hate.

"Go to hell..." Mutant girl said closing her eyes.

"Anyway... I won't see Mark again." She thought realizing, how stupid she was despairing because of her parents decision to move her from Xavier's school.

"Leave behind alone!" She heard the familiar shout of her boyfriend.

"Ah... it is getting interesting..." The elf replied correcting his hair. Young mutant DJ stood a few meters farther. His face expressed tiredness after running and great anger which he felt towards the person standing before him.

"Leave her alone! I said something to you!" He shouted again. He was wearing headphones of his walkman and his hands were sparkling with an energy cumulating in his body. The murderer with golden hair seemed to be amused with his arriving.

"And I thought that my mission would give me no fun. Cutting the throat of that thing..." He pointed at the girl.

"... boring as hell. But you look interesting, boy. Should we dance?" He said blinking to Mark.

"Dance with this!" DJ hit the elf with the energy collected in his body during listening to some very hard music. Man with golden hair fell down to the pavement. The sword hit against the stone, emitting nice, metallic sound. Mark ran up to Megan.

"Who is this queer? Has he done something to you?" He asked embracing the girl.

"He tried. He battered me a bit, but if you haven't appear... he wanted to kill me, the same as that pale woman. What do they want from me?"

"I don't know, but I won't let him do you any harm. Even if I have to kill him." The boy announced looking at the elf.

"Be careful. My dust doesn't work on him." The girl advised.

Hope's astral lightning struck Geralt and the Traveller sitting on the flow of the Corridor's magical energy. The attack surprised them both, neither the man nor the being accompanying him managed to protect themselves from it. The connection with the path was broken, the bright ribbon waved just to vanish later, exploding in a cascade of sparks lasting only a fraction of second. Coyote disappeared feeling the danger, escaping into the dimension in which he had the habit of staying when not summoned, and Geralt's body became material. The man hit the pavement. Hope's apparition was floating a few meters above the earth, waiting for the man to recover from the shock. The girl was determined and decided that she wouldn't let the man standing before her threaten Megan. She was willing to fight with him even for the price of his or her own life.

"Who... what are you?" Geralt shouted reaching for the handgun.

"I'm Trance from the Paragons. Don't waste time shooting to me. In my spectral form, you cannot hurt me. You won't go farther, so wait calmly until more people similar to me come here. You won't get Megan Gwynn and you'll explain me what do you want from her and why you're hunting her!"

Hearing Pixie's real name, Geralt guessed whom the etheric girl, levitating before him, really was and recalled why he had arrived at the airport in such unconventional way.

"No, Trance, you've mistaken me for somebody else! I'm here to warn Megan, to rescue her! She is threatened by a great danger! It's me who rescued Megan and her friend in the park of the entertainment!"

Hope was disorientated by the last revelation heard from the mouth of the man.

"How am I supposed to know that you're telling the truth? I won't risk. I'll stop you until my friends come here. Later, you'll be able to convince us to your rightness!"

"Girl! You really don't understand that seconds matter? Megan is in a great danger! If you don't get out of my way in a minute, you won't leave me choice different than fight against you!"

"How will you be fighting with a ghost?" Hope's apparition smiled widely.

"You will see..." Geralt made a step towards the girl.

Mark threw fist-sized energy projectiles towards the elf with golden hair. The man was too fast and too agile for him, he avoided each of balls with an ease, jumping above them and dodging them. Mark became more and more tired, but he didn't give up. He knew that he had been a sole obstacle for the Megan's future murderer. At some point, the elf destroyed one of energy balls with the help of the golden sword. He looked very irritated.

"I'm bored with the dance, my little boy. Perhaps we should try something more serious? What do you want?" He asked smiling. A cloud of whirling rose petals appeared around his body. Pieces of plants formed two big streams, slithering around shoulders of the man like huge snakes waiting obediently for the order of their master. After a moment, they dashed off towards Mark hitting him with a strength of water gushing out, under the great pressure, from a large garden hose. The first blow destroyed the boy's walkman and the second one pushed him. The man with golden hair used disorientation of the mutant and ran up to him in a flash. He grabbed his arms, pressed him to the surface of the large, wooden box and pushed his body to Mark's with all his might. He moved his mouth close boy's face.

"You can see, little boy... we could share a lot pleasures with each other. But you must wait until I finish my task. Wait for me and don't go anywhere." He whispered looking Mark straight in the eyes. He jumped away from him and returned to Megan in order to hit her with the sword and finish her once and for all. At the same moment, Mark heard the intense roar of the taking off plane. Huge jet engines emitted the loud noise shaking the ground in the form of the vibrations. It was clearly perceptible although the runway was placed in the quite far-away distance from the technical buildings of the airport. Mark acted instinctively, he used the model of pulses of engines' roar to find the equally huge energy in himself and to mould it into one fatal blow. Arms of the boy glowed in white color. Mark directed them at the elf and freed the entire power collected in himself. The shock wave dashed off towards the surprised man. When the murderer was hit, his sword broke into a few pieces and the body and clothes glowed with a brightness striking naked eyes. Frightened Megan ran up to the boy.

"Mark, stop, you'll kill him!" She screamed.

"I don't know whether I can stop!" Mark answered her with an effort, not being able to turn off his newly roused power. One of hands of the elf was stripped off skin and all its bones broke up into small pieces. The man summoned one of his spells used only and exclusively in moments of the greatest threat. His body disappeared in a flash, creating leaves of the maidenhair tree whirling in the air. Mark used up the entire energy inside his body and fell down to the pavement unconscious. Megan kneeled in the place in which for her would-be murderer stood a few seconds ago.

"What happened here? What kind of killing power you have inside you, Mark?" She said to herself looking at lying boy and remains of the golden sword shining in the sun's rays. Geralt reached the place in which the destructive fight took place a few minutes before. He looked at DJ lying on the earth, kneeling Megan and surroundings with hallmarks of the freed enormous energy: cracked paving stones, broken elements of wooden boxes and a lot of rose petals and leaves of the maidenhair tree lying around everywhere. He decided not to become noticeable as soon as he became convinced that the danger to life of the girl had passed.

"I can see that you're able to deal with the danger..." He thought.

Shan and Nicholas, worried by a long Hope's absence from her own body, decided to come off towards the technical buildings of the airport, exactly where they could see Megan the last time walking away with the police officer and where Mark ran without the moment thoughts. Ben stayed with Hope so that nobody threatened the material coating of the girl while her astral form travelled across the airfield in search for her friend. After a few minutes of the walk, Karma and Wolfcub encountered horrifying sight. They noticed Trance's silhouette near one of big buildings. Although the girl was in her wraithlike figure, she was completely material. She looked like the statue formed from blue piece of glasses and her frozen face expressed a great surprise. The pair of mutants quickly came to their friend and immediately tried to provide her assistance. Karma wanted to communicate with her telepathically, catch her mind in a psychic grasp, but unfortunately she was completely without success. It was a surprise to everyone, that the frozen Hope's state freezing hadn't lasted long. The body of the girl waved and came back to its sylphlike figure a moment later.

"What happened Hope?" Shan asked.

"I... I'm terribly worn out, I must quickly come back to the body. I can't manage already longer..." Trance answered her, but the voice was barely able to get out of her spectral throat.

"Okay, Hope. Be calm... Don't overexert yourself, you will explain everything to us later." Shan announced. Hope's ghost glided towards her body with a huge speed. Karma turned to the boy keeping her company.

"Nick, come back to the group. Talk with Hope, if only she has enough strength. Learn what exactly happened to her. I must find Megan and Mark, because I have a really bad feelings."

"Ok." The mutant replied and came back to his friends from the group. After a few minutes, Shan came to the typically technical part of the airport. She could see wooden boxes, loading devices, panes and planes standing on the runway in the distance. She quickly reached the place destroyed during the fight against the murderer with a golden hair. She caught a sight of Megan kneeling by unconscious Mark. She got scared very much, since seeing crying girl and a paleface of the boy, she thought that a real tragedy had happened there.

"Megan what happened here? What's with Mark? " She asked coming to winged mutant girl.

"He is very tired... he used so much energy... I have never seen him so determined before."

"Did he use the powers? Against whom? What happened Megan here?" Shan became even more worried.

"That police officer who accompanied me from the airfield... he wasn't a real police officer. He was a murderer, he wanted to kill me, Shan..." Megan was shaken, the events from a few minutes ago caused so intense emotional stress, that the girl had been on the border of panic attack.

"I don't know whom he was, he could be a mutant, perhaps some sorcerer... he had extraordinary abilities, my hallucinogenic dust didn't work on him. He wanted to kill me with a sword Shan, he wanted to cut my throat, it entertained him..."

Shan crouched down near Megan and hugged her strongly.

"Calm down, you're already safe, there is no man here."

"Mark rescued me. When a plane took off, he used its noise to awaken the real power in himself. He... it was so terrible... I don't remember details because I was in a shock, but he... this man... he probably killed him! Mark ripped that man to shreds, Shan!"

Karma was worried by the last statement of the girl, but she didn't let her recognize.

"He had to have no choice Megan." She said looking at the calm DJ's face in a sleep recuperating the body and the psyche.

Ben, Wolfcub and Hope sat on benches, in the least populated place at the airport. The girl leaned against the wall, she was breathing with an effort and her face was covered with a sweat. Hope felt really bad, she thought that her soul hadn't fitted the body in which it was residing. Muscles, which existence was a mystery to her until then, ached her. Short imprisonment in the form of the crystallized etheric energy affected her physical abilities after the return to the body. Ordinary raising a hand was a real challenge for her and walking a few meters unaided by her friends was her greatest achievement. The girl hoped that the effect had been equally short-lived as lasting in the frozen form of the transparent living statue.

"Who did it to you, Hope?" Ben asked.

"I don't know... " The girl whispered.

"But he was the same man who helped Megan and Mark in the park. He is on our side."

"If he was on our side, you wouldn't look now as if you were supposed to kick a bucket in a minute!"

"He stopped me so that I didn't butt in... perhaps I deserved this..." The girl replied.

"But now let me say nothing more, my jaw aches as somebody stuck the hundred of needles in it. " She added closing her eyes.

Meanwhile in Wales, inside the bar named "Under the Ruins", two old friends, Ian and Will had a long conversation. Red haired man with a moustache sat at a table, sipping the beer and his companion with dark hair stood close by, leaning against the cold wall of the building. There weren't a lot of people in the pub, maybe three or four other persons counting also the old bartender.

"I called the America's school, as you asked. I ordered the headmistress of that school to send Megan home. She wanted to have a discussion with me, to convince me that the stay in the Institute is the most important for the girl at the moment, but I was tough." Ian said.

"Very well. Do you know, when she will arrive here?" Will asked looking at the mustachioed friend.

"I don't know, maybe tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. I told them to hurry up. Still I don't understand, why you ordered me to get her here. After all she is much safer in America, there are plenty of people with extraordinary abilities and if anybody tried to hurt her, somebody would certainly protect her. X-Men live in her school, have you heard about them?"

"These so-called American super heroes, mutants or else? They all are a product of the last century. The threat awaiting Megan is considerably more older than their country, it is older than our homeland! They aren't taught to struggle with something like that. Megan was attacked and her so-called defenders didn't pass the test."

"What are you talking about! Was she attacked? When?" Ian became irritated very much hearing information about the fact that the life of his daughter was endangered.

"In the same day when we met."

"You told me nothing..."

"I wanted to take care of your weak heart."

"But how do you know about it?"

"There is our common friend in USA. He protected Megan revealing nothing about two of us."

"Our common friend, whether you mean..."

"Yes, Ian... Geralt protected your little girl."

"I was sure that he doesn't live. I will have to buy him a large drink as soon as he returns to us."

"Wait until your daughter is really safe."

"What's going on? After our small adventure and after Megan was born, I severed connection with my past entirely. I closed all those books in the attic and other things in boxes in the basement and I lived day after day dealing only with a work and my family. I even broke all contacts with the mother. I wanted to escape from it and I managed until now, why now it has returned to me? Why did you come back?"

"Living in the world of Everlasting Twilight twists the mind of ordinary mortals. I didn't understand it before, I was young and stupid. Now it's too late for me, but I want to do something good before that world calls me again and I plunge into it for eternity. That land is actually a part of the Hell and nothing will change it, even its extraordinary beauty. Beings of that world also feel its corrupting power, admittedly to a lesser degree than we, but they do. They understand very well that the lack of change and the time of endless fun aren't the source of happiness. It gives a satisfaction to none and brings only a boredom and the indifference. Some of them want changes, but not everyone agree with them."

"Difference of opinion in the Tylwyth Teg's court? That's interesting."

"You said it too politely, Ian. I would say rather that these are preparations for the civil war. The real war which will come to our world also, if it's not stopped in time. Our Earth and God forbid, also the land of the creator of Everlasting Twilight. Dark Tylwyth Teg formulated the plan of the revolution in the Lands and soon more beings went over to their side. They know very well that, in their world of never-ending dusk, they don't have a chance of creating new world order, therefore they want to create it here, on this planet. Both sides sends their agents to the Earth. I don't have a clue how many people walking on the islands are sleeping agents from these Lands. But we bear the direct responsibility for what is happening. Because our recklessness showed them how to change. And you bear the largest responsibility, Ian. Because thanks to you, the physical possibility of changes arose.

"Megan? " The man with a big moustache asked with a fear perceptible the voice.

"Yes, your daughter is a hybrid who can connect both worlds. Now you understand that the best protection for Megan is necessary. Do you understand why she could not stay in America, a long way from her place of birth?"

Ian didn't answer his colleague. He looked at the old man sitting behind the bar as well as at the couple of fat men who were inside the pub a few minutes ago and ordered two great pints with an amber nectar.

Shan and Megan kneeled nearby Mark who slowly regained consciousness. At first, the boy could not recall what happened a moment ago, neither how he managed to free himself and control such a great energy. However he remembered very well that Megan had been in a big danger. He was glad seeing her safe and sound by his side.

"Megan... Is everything all right? Where is the man..." He asked trying to get up.

"Lie calmly Mark." Shan said.

"It's over. You defeated him, we're safe!" Pixie announced with ja oy. Hearing the last statement of his girlfriend, Mark realized how he got rid of his opponent. He looked at his hands, as if wanted to find the reply what he actually did defending himself against the opponent.

"Megan... whether I... did I kill him?" He asked.

"Don't think about it now! The most important is that we're safe. If not for you, I would die!"

"Calm down, as soon as you're ok, we'll return to the group and come back to the school. Later we'll decide what to do."

"Unfortunately you'll have to change plans." Geralt appeared behind Shan's back. The girl turned violently preparing for the fight.

"He's this guy who rescued us in the park!" Pixie said getting up from the pavement and joining her teacher.

"Who are you? What do you know about the attack on my pupil!" Shan asked.

"I'm an acquaintance of your father. Megan Gwynn and I arrived here to protect you."

"My father?" Pixie was surprised.

"You didn't carry out the task too well." Karma added.

"This country is too big to protect somebody here individually. But you have a very good bodyguard by your side." The man announced looking at Mark sitting on the pavement.

"Did my dad send you here? Did he order me to get back home, because he knew that I was threatened by a great danger? Who were they? Why did they want to kill me?" Megan didn't stop asking. Shan asked her to finish.

"You'll come back with us to the school and explain us everything in a great detail." She said looking at her pupils and later at Geralt.

"Unfortunately it won't be possible. We must immediately go to the Megan's home town."

"That's impossible! Our plane departed a moment ago besides, I won't let Megan to travel now when I know that she is threatened! X-Men will find out who is behind attacks and if you help us..."

"I'm not talking about the air journey, we'll be travelling in other, far less conventional way." Geralt said gladly and a few seconds after he finished his statement, an intense bright whirlpool of light appeared behind his back and the Traveller in the form of the coyote standing in its with very centre.

"What do you wish y?" He asked looking at Geralt's unshaven face.

"We're getting back home!"

"You are finally saying something what makes sense."

"Do you think that I'll let you access this thing with my student? No way!"

"We don't already have a lot of time. Therefore I don't intend to have a discussion with you. I will take you as well as that boy with Megan. You can enter first, if you want."

"No way!" Karma tried to use her psychic grasp on the man. Unfortunately she found out that his mind had been protected by some very large barrier.

"Please don't try it again. If we don't act quickly, they will send more and more and more murderers until at last they win. And then Megan will be on your conscience, please remember it and think you decision over."

"I'm not changing my decision. Megan, Mark, or I will go with you nowhere!" Shan was very stubborn.

"Well. As you want... Traveller!" Geralt shouted looking at his animal companion. In the same moment, the tunnel radiated such an intense light, that three mutants were blinded in spite of the fact that they managed to close their eyes and occlude them with hands earlier. When glitter vanished, it turned out that there was no Megan, Mark and Shan as well as the mysterious man in the raincoat and his strange friend in the old part of the airport.

Hope felt much better than a few minutes earlier. The spell which Geralt used on the girl lost its power as fast as it worked on her. Trance remembered the conversation with the unshaven man, every his word concerning Megan and plans for her.

"Shan isn't returning, perhaps we should look for her?" Ben suggested.

"It will be hard to catch her track because so many people are squirming here, but I'll try." Nicholas said.

"No... It doesn't have any sense. You won't find her." Hope spoke simultaneously asking boys not to move.

"Why such an idea?" Ben asked.

"I talked to this strange fellow before he froze me. He told me he was a long-standing friend of the family of Megan and more specifically her father's. Then he said something like that only on the homeland he would be able to protect her and he was going to take her and everyone who was in her vicinity to Wales in the same way as he arrived at the airport. If Shan, Mark and Megan aren't coming back, Megan is most probably already on her way home. He later used something strange on me, some charm, I don't know, in order to stop me because I'm an only person who could track him where he intended to come off. As you see he got rid of me quite effectively.

"Did he teleport himself?" Ben asked.

"No... it was something else. When I was in the astral form I could see how he moved on some strange bright line. I don't remember well, but probably somebody or something were with him there. He used the same technique to take away Megan and others."

"Hope, would you be able to find this bright line?"

"I don't think so, I've never seen something like that before. And apart from that I said a moment ago that he effectively had neutralized me. I cannot leave the body, as if put some blockade on me. I hope that it's only a temporary state."

"Dr. McCoy should see you, as soon as we come back to the school." Match said.

"To the school? Should we not search for Shan and the rest?" WolfCub asked.

"You heard what Hope told us! We must come back and notify X-Men about everything what happened here. Perhaps we'll manage to fly to Wales with somebody from the team. The Quicker we go away from here, the better."

Bright, blinding light brightened the surroundings submerged in the morning semi-darkness and four people and the coyote appeared in the middle of the moor covering the extensive plain. The trio of mutants were disorientated with a sudden, compulsory journey into the remote place in other time zone on the second end of the globe. Shan and Megan recovered quite quickly, but Mark refrained himself from losing the consciousness with an effort. The fight against the man with a golden hair weakened his organism more than he suspected earlier.

"Where are we! Where have you taken us!" Karma shouted. She tried to take over the control of the Geralt's mind, again without a success.

"Megan should answer your question." The man announced calmly. Pixie looked around, looked at meadows, as far as her eyes could see. She gazed at the dark sky and the ruins of the old castle in the far distance.

"It's Wales, Shan! It's a place in which I was brought up!" Young mutant replied smiling widely.

"I won't let you take Megan!" Karma assumed a defensive position, although her abilities were ineffective on Geralt, the girl prepared for the physical duel. She hoped that hours spent in the Danger Room would be useful to her at last.

"You cannot trust me, woman? In that case I'll have to convince you by a force." The man answered smiling. The coyote sitting at his feet looked at all people and sparks of ill joy appeared in his eyes.

"Stop! Calm down you two!" Megan shouted noticing that two persons were approaching. Gloomy Will with dark hair was one of them and second one was ginger Ian, her father.

"Who are they!" Shan was very angry. She knew that she wouldn't be able to face up to three adult and strong men.

"Shan, that is my dad!" Pixie replied pointing at the direction of her father. Ian spread his arms out. The girl ran up to him and hugged him.

"Megan, I'm so happy that you're safe and sound." Ian said embracing the daughter.

"We must get back home and call your school so that they don't worry about your disappearance." He added.

The consecutive night was very turbulent for all members of the Paragons team as well as other students and teachers from the Xavier Institute. Ben thought how to convince somebody from X-Men to take him to the Wales. Assurances of the girl's father that everything had been ok, didn't convince him. Nicholas was sitting on the roof of the school musing if he would be able to stop the man in the raincoat from kidnapping his friends. Maybe he should have gone with Shan instead returning to his friends. Hope was lying in the clinic looking at the ceiling, because Henry Mccoy asked her to stay on observation a few hours. She could not leave her body or she was simply afraid of it after what had happened to her, when she had been frozen in the very mysterious way. Jessica was walking along corridors of the dormitory, because that night attacked her with sleeplessness. It wasn't caused by racing thoughts, like in her friends' case, but rather with sensing something very important what was supposed to take place that night. The girl visited all levels of the hall of residence, she imperceptibly left to the area outside the school in order to walk in the garden bathed in the cold moonlight. Sculptures of X-Men members who died in the battle seemed bigger and much more depressing to her than by a day. The silver glitter and long black shadows slithering on the grass gave them unrealistic appearance, kind of like from some strange dream. Jessica sat down on the bench pointing her face in the direction of the Moon. She closed her eyes, letting sounds of the night flow into her ears. TV set in some room, loud in spite of late hours, plane flying in the distance, nothing unusual and special - the girl thought. At some point Jessica felt that new vision was going to come to her mind.

"What the hell is happening..." She thought. Images which struck mutant were so intense, that she fell to her knees. Thousands of different visions appeared in front of her eyes, completely not connected with each other. She remembered many of them from the previous revelation in the funfair, but some were different and brand new. Dark room full of dark beings, three young men going through a forest full of glittering colorful charlocks, the intense snowy snowstorm and the fight for the life of two people, beautiful garden with a bizarre flora, the older woman burning the candle on moors, the proud woman with a stone cold look, man with a golden hair with the hand made out of a pure gold, the old witch with crazy eyes keeping dogs belching out fire on chains, city full of strange people with sad faces, city being on fire and put ablaze in the fight, dusk covering the entire planet, blood flowing on wings of a butterfly, tormented hand with a sapphire ring, the old woman closing wooden shutters and extinguishing the candle in the shape of a human figure, the mysterious man drinking wine by a pitch-black grand piano, dripping drops of blood and wine, touching of a velvet and the fragrance of a meadow. The girl could not cope with all the images, sounds, smells and the tactile sensations. She embraced herself with arms as if she wanted to tear visions off herself, to knock them off to the ground and to trample them. She had to act, do something so that her revelation could be ended. She got up, ran to the schoolhouse. She wandered along corridors driving strange faces unknown to her off: a man with a golden hair, unshaven man, girl as white as a sheet, old green witch with an angry look, the man with very harsh looking eyes and many others who lurked in every window and pane. The dazed girl reached her destination, the door to the art room. She tried to open it pressing the door handle, but without a success. She smiled noticing that the door was glazed and gathering a speed, she smashed a window-pane with her own body getting inside. Her hand bled, but she wasn't upset by it, knowing that only there she would be able to get rid of such intense prophetic experience. Having found paints and brushes she started painting. Walls, floors, benches, every area being suitable for an application became her linen. Every painted figure, stage, event caused that one vision had disappeared in her head, one voice became silent. She could not stop painting, until she entirely cleared her mind. After a few minutes her work was finished. The big map with strange symbols and images of the people painted in a hurry appeared in the classroom. Faces of women and, old and young men looked from benches, the floor and walls. In the middle of everything, a portrait of the woman with red hair, pointed ears and large wings of a butterfly could be seen. Her white dress differed from other images held in dark colors. Jessica came up to the portrait and banged her fist on it splashing her own blood on bright robes of the figure. She sat down on the floor being grateful to the fate that her revelation stopped.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Megan, Mark, Shan and three old friends: Megan's father - Ian, Will and Geralt came to the home belonging to the family of the girl with butterfly wings. The building was old, but well renovated and one of its walls was covered by green creepers. It neighbored with a dark forest and enormous moors stretching all around, with a silhouette of medieval castle's ruins located on the horizon. After crossing the threshold of the flat, young mutant girl was warmly greeted by her mother and, one moment later, by the neighbor who she had known since her youngest years. Both women were very interested in persons accompanying Megan in her travel from the United States and in particular with the black haired boy. Megan's mother quickly recognized one of her old acquaintance - Geralt who she also cordially invited home. Will didn't want the company, therefore he stayed in the nearby garden, covered by weeds and trees, not kept in the order by the sleight of gardeners' hand. He observed from a distance the light radiating from the window of the flat and human figures moving on its background. Soon everyone gathered by the table full of diverse dishes, remembered by Megan from her childhood. The girl relaxed and calmed, the nice company let her forget about all bad things which had happened to her within a few last days. Mark also smiled and talked to Megan's parents, but at the same time he was quiet and depressed. He could not get rid of the thought about the increasing power of his abilities and what had happened with his opponent. The boy didn't know that the elf with golden hair from the magic land had managed to escape, he was convinced that he had ripped his body to shreds and burnt them in the manifestation of his superhuman abilities. Shan knew very well that the sense of guilt sooner or later could lead the mutant to some tragedy. She had to talk with Geralt, to ask him to send Mark to America so that somebody could deal with his problem there. She decided to stay with Megan, to protect her from all dangers which could meet her in the immediate future. Geralt asked Ian to leave with him to the second room. The conversation of men was quiet, but clearly emotional. Megan tried to hear details, to learn something, since she was convinced that men were talking about her. In a minute, her the curiosity was supposed to be satisfied.

"Megan... - Ian said going into the room." Eyes of everyone looked at him.

"I thought that it would never happen. I thought that I would never have to talk to you about it. I managed to escape from my pasts and provide the happy life for you, but now when it came to light, I realized how big mistake I made forgetting about everything. You almost died, not even knowing why. I'm sorry Megan, because this is my fault..." Ian announced with a calm voice. His wife looked at him suspiciously. She knew what the man had been supposed to say in a minute.

"Things are happening very quickly and therefore I cannot drag off any longer. Megan, you must learn the truth about yourself. You must learn who you really are."

Megan's mother got up from the chair and came up to the mustachioed man.

"Ian, don't do it... you're exposing her to a danger."

"Glenda. Megan was attacked in the States. She and her friend. If not for Geralt, they both could die. If what Will says is the truth, we have no time. We must act and try to rectify our mistake."

Glenda looked at the daughter.

"Yes mum, somebody wanted to kill me. If not for Geralt and... Mark." Megan looked at the boy and he smiled to her.

"I could be dead now". She added.

"Ok Ian. Remember Megan that we love you and you can have our help always" The woman let her husband to continue the conversation.

"Megan, we didn't want to tell you it all earlier, but now you must know that Glenda isn't your real mother."

The girl didn't say a word, but her eyes betrayed huge shock. Mark touched her hand.

"Biologically, she is her real mother. She gave birth to her." Geralt cut in on the conversation.

"Could you not interrupt me?"

"I wanted to correct you, because you were inaccurate."

"Megan, Glenda isn't your real mother and at the same time she is. It is very complex and I cannot explain it to you in a simple way.

"I'm really puzzled at the moment. I don't understand what you want to make over to me!" The girl became nervous. Strange events gathering around her for a few days started slowly outgrowing the her psychological resistance.

"Your physical body came into the existence inside your mum, it developed there and it is mum who gave birth to you. But your... soul... doesn't come from Glenda. Your soul comes... from the completely different place..." Ian talked with a greater difficulty. He didn't want to reveal to his daughter how she had been conceived and his own past, but her safety was the most important for him.

"It comes from me... and from the woman from the other world." He whispered trying to avoid eyes of his wife and Megan's.

Jessica was sitting in a dark room somewhere in basements of Xavier's school for young mutants. The door leading to the room was very massive and armored. There was only a small pane, additionally reinforced by gratings. A device blocking the psychic abilities of mutants hung above the girl's head. Preview became a prisoner at her own school, because her teachers were afraid that the night of wrecking the art room by her could be a beginning of returning abilities to change the reality or simply they reached a conclusion that her mental state had deteriorated and she became a threat to herself and the entire neighborhood. Her hands were bandaged and wounds which she imposed on herself breaking the pane, ached her very much. Jessica turned her head away from the light incident from behind the door trying to ignore the pain and the noise in her head caused by the neutralizer of psychic powers. At some point, Hope Abbot came up to her cell.

"Jessica?" She said shakily.

"Jessica?" She repeated, when her friend didn't react.

"I could hear you the first time." Jessie announced angrily.

"How are you feeling?"

"Great. Apart from that, I feel like throwing up all the time because of this abomination which hangs above my head, it's simply wonderfull."

" Jessie. Frost let none of us to meet with you. I managed to come here, thanks to Dr McCoy. I don't know, if I can do it the second time. The entire school is talking about what happened in the studio. Everyone of us are shocked, but we don't want to talk about it. What happened? Why did you do it?"

"I had a vision. It concerned Megan and people who are with her. Something large will happen soon, something which will outgrow us and Megan will be in the very centre of these events. I have never experienced something like that before. I simply had to record this vision, but images were the only things that came to my mind at the night. Did Frost warn Megan?"

"But... Frost doesn't believe in what you saw. She thinks, that you... your mind is not stable... that you..."

"I went nuts? I went completely mad? Did you want to say it?"

- Not Jessie. These are not my words. But these pictures, your own blood spilt on the wall. Isn't it until the end normal, you don't think?

"You also think that I went mad?" Jessica got up from the chair. She clenched fists and a few drops from her wounds on hands fell on the floor.

"I didn't say it... I cannot simply understand..."

"Go away Hope. If you believe Frost, it's your matter. Even if you're afraid of me the same as the majority of this school, I won't be crying over it. Better think about Megan, because if my vision is true, something terrible is threatening her."

" Jessie, I want to help you so much..."

"In that case, come back to the academic. I don't feel like having a company. Even yours."

Sad Hope left the basements of the institute.

"It's no use, I don't understand it! Could you be more clear?" Megan was irritated. She knew her parents and herself less and less with every passing moment. Mark and Shan waited for the rest of the story in a silence.

"I will explain everything to you Megan, give me a moment to gather my thoughts." The mustachioed man announced.

"My family... our family comes from the very old tribe which inhabited this land from thousands of years. Our ancestors had always lived on the edge of the civilization and the nature, on the fine line between known and unknown and two different worlds continually interleaved in their life. I won't be talking about details, we have no time, I'll say that we had always looked after the tradition and the knowledge forgotten by the rest of the society. I learnt everything from my mother and your grandmother, Megan."

The girl thought about something very deeply. She remembered when she visited the house of her grandmother as a little girl, the house lying on the edge of the vast forest which had always filled her with a fear. She remembered very well how she had looked at, with a concern, the black space stretching out behind the window each night, being afraid that one day something could come straight from the forest thicket up to the bed in which she had slept. She remembered her grandmother burning a candle in the window and its glitter causing that nightmares tormenting her faded away into the non-existence with the first rays of the morning. Did her grandmother know a thousand years old esoteric things? Megan could not believe it, but one look at her own wings and recall of everything she had seen in Xavier's School, caused that it wasn't a pure fantasy for her anymore. The girl broke free from the reflection and came back to listening to the story of her father.

"I was young and stupid, I didn't listen to my mother's warnings and things, she treated with the somberness, were only a chance for a good play to me. Then I got to know Geralt and Will, we thought that we could possess the entire world into our dominion together. The mother taught me everything about herbs and their working on the human mind. She also told me about the possibility of getting to the other world, existing close and at the same time far from our own. I didn't believe it was literal. I thought that connecting hallucinogens in her herbs and the peculiar climate which ruled in the summer night in forests surrounding her house, we would cross the border of the reality and gave us the biggest trip in the history of humanity. We inhaled a lot of shit from the mum's warehouse and then we went into the forest to search for the fairy ring which was supposed to lead us directly to gates of the Land of Everlasting Twilight. Herbs didn't disappoint us! We walked in the beautiful forest with trees in unusual colors and the sky with the strange coloring changing along with our mood. Soon, we came to the forest clearing, where beautiful women greeted us with colorful wings sprinkling us with dust shimmering like stars. The travel through the land, which then seemed to us to be only a product of our mind, seemed to last centuries. When we started sensing the passage of time and the tiredness, we were sure that our journey was ending and the grey reality of countryside would greet us soon. We were mistaken. The land of Everlasting Twilight wasn't only imaginings of three teenagers under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs. It was real like this house, like we. And it wasn't a good, safe and beautiful place it seemed to us at the beginning. We were found by beings inhabiting that land. Tylwyth Teg, or as you like Fair Folk turned out to be something more than only legends to frighten the children. I remember how beautiful were people surrounding us. Everyone had long, fair hair and blue eyes gleaming like stars, they were young and seemed to didn't have a flaw. One look at some of them and you fell in love, whether you looked at a woman or a guy. They were interested in three of uys, because we were something new in their land, perhaps since hundreds of years. After a few days of a walk through colorful meadows on which unicorns ran and hours of wild sex with their prettiest women in the shadow of huge mushrooms, we reached to the capital of the Annwn land, to the estate of their wonderful queen. Mab, the tall woman with long hair in a color of emerald, greeted us with a party lasting uninterruptedly for seven days and seven nights. We've never had such a good time, drinking liters of wine after which we didn't have a hangover. I thought then that herbs of my mother had killed me and I found my way to the paradise. Unfortunately, it turned out that a dark mystery had been hidden under a colorful border."

The loudspeaker in the cell occupied by Jessica uttered a strange sound and then a familiar voice came from it.

"How you are holding on Jessica?" Sarah, sister of mutant girl, asked.

"And how do you think I am?" The black-haired girl replied.

"You look terrible."

"How can you see me?"

"I managed to take over the control of the camera. I ordered it to send the image to the computer terminal in the hall of residence. I also control the loudspeaker, because I managed to recognize every electric circuit in our school."

"Turn this damn psionic device off. I won't withstand this noise in my head any longer."

"Sorry, Jessie. I cannot. Frost and the rest will be alarmed that something is wrong. It's the system of the first priority in your small room."

"Don't you know if Frost decided something in my matter?" Jessie asked out of sheer curiosity. She knew that she could not expect extraordinary revelations.

"Cyclops and Frost think that your powers of influencing reality may be coming back. They don't want to believe in what you scribbled in the room. Shan called from Wales earlier and it turned out that nothing had happened there."

"Sarah... Megan has been attacked twice! What else must happen so that they believe me and let me go out from this cage? Are they stupid?"

"Jessie... they think, that you could create these two murderers yourself. Like you created your beauty who tried to kill all of us."

"What? Are they really so stupid?"

"I don't know... you cannot say it is impossible."

"I cannot believe that you too are afraid of me and you don't trust me! Better go away or else they'll locate you and you'll have trouble! And I don't want any more visits, because they lead nowhere. Leave me alone."

"Please yourself. I only wanted to talk." Sarah announced and disconnected from the communication system in her sister's cell.

Megan's father continued the extraordinary story about his own past.

"Earthly hours and days seemed to us to last months and years in Annwn. Each of us quickly found his place in this unusual society. Will was making love all days, Geralt started learning the magic at the side of the mage who was passing himself off as legendary Merlin and I... oh well... I found love in the arms of queen Mab, in spite of that I and Glenda, we were already engaged then. The vast garden surrounding the palace became a place of our amorous funs. Its every smell, color, shape, or sound had an influence on our psyche, cast the spell putting the curtain on our mind and not allowing us to see the truth. Fair Folk spent the entire days on a play, sex, dance and music, not thinking about the future. They were without problems because they even didn't have to work to get a food, having everything given in the garden of never-ending delight. The fact that their society stagnated was the other side of the coin, they didn't have possibility of amending, development, improving themselves and the world surrounding them. In their land, nothing new had happened for centuries, every day looked the same, the existence was decline of life the same as the smile stuck on their faces, as false as spells which they cast on themselves to look beautiful. Therefore, our arrival was something extraordinary for them, they admired us because we hadn't been excellent, but in spite of it we were able to learn and change. Many of them tried to imitate us, other viewed us with a concern. The day I learnt that Mab had been pregnant, everything started crumbling down as a house of cards. We became victims of the intrigue which forced us to run away from the paradise. Mab said to us, at the beginning of our visit in her palace that we could use everything what belonged to her, but we weren't allowed to walk to the dimwit forest hidden behind the Garden of Delight. I didn't understand this ban, but who would give thought to laws of that bizarre world. Unfortunately, some nymph seduced Will with her bare ass and this idiot went after her to this forest. Mab learnt about everything and drove us out beyond walls of her manor house. Will didn't come back, we thought that he had been killed. After our return to the world it turned out that he had managed to escape, but the visit in the dark forest changed him forever, his former personality was replaced by the other, darker one. I was desperate, after all my unborn daughter stayed behind the golden gate! I didn't want her to be there, I didn't want her to grow up in such a place and became the same artificial being as other residents of the Garden of Delight. Geralt helped me using the magic taught at Merlin's side. He cast the spell on the soul of my child, on your soul Megan... he turned it into the ball of the warmth and light which I could touch, cuddle to my body. Mab was furious, she put a curse on me, after all I took her child away. The entire land turned against us. Beautiful meadows became full of thorny bushes higher than buildings and wonderful hills on which at one time unicorns ran, started looking like sharp rocks wounding legs of wanderers. The large snowstorm blocked our return road to the Earth, but we didn't give up. I was walking in the direction pointed by Geralt, although I could see nothing and my hands and legs froze after step. I went through the ice desert, thinking only about Megan's safety. Luckily, we managed to leave Fearie or Mab simply let us out. In the following day, I went to Glenda, I spent a night with her and soon your soul had a physical body in which it could settle. I decided to escape my life, to break all contacts with Geralt and even with my own mother. Megan, I wanted you to have a happy life and never got to know your past. Unfortunately, now the past caught up with you."

Pixie was silent. She could not believe a single one word of her own father's story, everything what he said was nothing more than a fantasy story. She knew that he had had a talent for telling stories and she learnt that he had thought them up using his own experience.

"I... I understand nothing. I... I'm sorry, but I must leave for a moment." The girl rose from the couch and squeezing past mother and Mark ran to the exit door. The boy wanted to follow her, but Ian stopped him.

"Leave her alone. Let her be alone with her own thoughts." He said.

Jessica was in the underground cell, while Scott, Emma, Dr. McCoy and other residents of the institute argued with themselves, trying to understand the girl's behavior, her unusual vision immortalized on the walls of art studio and her connection with two attacks on Megan, in the park of entertainment and later at the airport. Opinions were divided, everyone were afraid of her untamed abilities of reality change and debated, how quickly and effectively she could be neutralized. Laura Kinney eavesdropped on a fragment of the conversation and then moved towards the schoolhouse. She saw Match and Wolfcub from a distance and also Hope Abbot on the second end of the building. Lost in thoughts, she took a few steps in direction of brown haired girl, but after a moment she changed her mind and ran in a completely different side. Using her abilities, she learnt as a mercenary, she got up to Jessica's cell using the ventilation tunnel. She knocked the door wanting to attract the attention of her black-haired friend.

"Jessica?" She asked.

" I'm fed up with guests. Leave me alone." Jessie replied unwillingly.

"It's me, Laura."

"I recognized you by your voice. I don't feel like talking. I'm sorry, but I would say it to anyone."

"You must leave from here. I need you. We must find the woman who attacked Megan. I need your visions."

"Nobody will agree to let me leave."

"I will free you from here. Move away from the door." Laura announced very seriously.

"Don't joke. They'll notice you in the camera. We won't walk away further than few meters."

"Don't worry. The camera is showing something else, we will escape through the ventilation tunnel to the other end of the building."

"How the camera can ..." Jessie asked and quickly worked out who was responsible for the breakdown.

"Sarah?" She asked.

"Yes."

"But why?"

"Because she believes in you the same as I." Laura answered briefly, extruding two claws from the right hand. She destroyed the electronic lock guarding the entrance into the cell with a fast move. Jessica left to the corridor, staggered and leaned on the wall.

"I feel dizzy."

"Sit down on the floor. You should feel better in a minute."

"Yes, it's fading away... it's because of that bloody device for blocking psychic abilities."

"In that case, let us hurry up. Your sister cannot control these devices infinitely." Laura pointed at the entry to the ventilation tunnel, through which she earlier got to the guarded part of Xavier Institute's basements. When both girls were inside the cramped and small corridor, X-23 turned to her friend.

"Tell me exactly what you could see in your vision. So far I could see only a portrait of Megan which you painted and many faces. I could hear your story, but from the mouth of Frost and Cylops. I eavesdropped on them, when they discussed what to do farther. I want you to told me your vision."

Jessica sighed.

"It isn't so easy. It's hard to tell me about something which was a wave of images flooding my thoughts. It didn't have any chronological order, neither a sense. I know that it was an announcement of a trouble which are coming to Megan. And most probably to us also, after what we did."

"Don't worry. Tell me everything you remember. We have a time until we leave the air shaft."

"Ok. But don't try to search for meaning in it."

Megan was walking on the extensive moors surrounding her home town thinking about the history she heard from the mouth of her father. The girl knew that he hadn't invented it, because he didn't have a reason to cheat her. She knew that it all really happened. It horrified her, that in one evening she learnt about the world something more incredible than legends which she had read as a child and she was a central part of this reality. The cold wind blowing from above the forest flew around her face, it shook her rosy hair. Megan didn't mind, it didn't worry her that she could catch a cold. Other world, taken straight from the fairy tale, an amazing story of her own birthday, it was something more than changes in the genetic code giving her superhuman abilities. The girl noticed Will in the nearby forest walking in the shadow of trees. He seemed strange, sinister, very well fitting somebody who was changed by the dark, forbidden place from her father's stories. She didn't trust him from the very beginning but after hearing the story about Annwn, she gained even greater suspicions. When the man looked at her, she got scared and deciding to get back home. The intuition suggested her that in the future she would have to be careful in his vicinity.

Megan's parents, Geralt as well as Shan and Mark stayed in the guest room. Ian sat down by Shan, the surge of memories as well as behavior of his daughter caused that he had to rest and calm himself down.

"Do you believe in what I've just told?" He turned to Shan.

"I admit that I'm surprised... it's really an amazing history. But I'm together with the X-Men. I could see places even more incredible than the ones which you talked about. I believe you and I hope that you'll be able to help Megan. If X-Men can somehow assist you in the protection of Megan, or fight with the ones..."

"No. American heroes aren't able to help in any way. Only three of us have some experience in contacts with that land. Only we have a chance to protect Megan." Geralt cut in on the conversation.

"I'm not going to sit idly when the pupil of mine is in a danger." Shan said very firmly. She looked at the unshaven face of the man in the raincoat and at Megan's father and mother.

"Well. If you want to expose yourself, it's your matter. Don't cross me again and never again try to attack me with your psychic powers. If you do it one more time, I'll show you in my mind such views, that you will be afraid to look in the mirror to the end of your days."

"I don't have to rely on my powers to defend myself against somebody as you." Shan replied clenching her fist. She didn't conceal her aversion to the unshaven magus. Glenda turned to Mark.

"You're terribly quiet since Megan have left outside. Do you need something?"

"I want to come back home, to our school. With Megan. I want Megan to be safe."

"I can see that you care about her very much. " The woman smiled.

"I'm happy that Megan got to know somebody like you." She added putting the hand on the boy's shoulder.

"You will have to wait" Geralt stopped the warm atmosphere which started forming in the living room.

"Megan cannot come back to America."

In the same moment. Pixie got back home. She looked around and then sat down by her boyfriend.

"Megan can be protected only here, as close as possible to the gate to the world of Eternal Dusk."

"Protected from what? You told how I had been born, but you didn't recall who was threatening me. Who wanted to kill me and why?"

"Megan... I was supposed to tell you everything, but you ran out of the house."

"Now I'm here and I'm awaiting your answers."

"Yeah, well. Geralt, could you say what you know?"

"Of course. It's a pity that Will is not here because he's able to talk about it in such a way..."

"I could hear yesterday."

"In Tylwyth Teg world, the great changes are coming. The once united land is set at variance, groups wanting change in the world of Everlasting Twilight are against the ones who don't want anything to be modified. The land can be consumed by a great war which will touch not only Annwn, but also the Earth. Dark Tylwyth Teg want changes, simultaneously not believing that they will manage to defeat the court of queen Mab, your real mother. Evidently, they're gearing themselves up to take our planet.

They already sent tens of changelings, children put in families in place of their own, living in the unawareness of their real legacy, waiting for an impulse from Fearie, changing their minds and forcing the compliance of the will of their leader on them. Those two who you met could be exactly somebody like them. You're the main character in a drama, because you're a hybrid, you're a pier which will be able to connect two different worlds."

"I don't intend to choose sides!" The girl became nervous.

"You'll have no choice. You'll become a tool in hands of one of sides. Unless... " The man replied.

"Unless we do what Will suggests." Ian completed for him.

"Namely?" Megan knew that she wouldn't be happy with what she was supposed to hear.

"We'll go to Fearie and we'll convince queen Mab to remove a spell from your soul. Thanks to that you will lose all connections with that dangerous world. Will promised that it is the only solution which can end the war in Fearie and let you return to the normalcy."

Megan wasn't too optimistically predisposed to the travel. The distrust for the black-haired man became even greater than before a few minutes ago.

"And you believe him, dad?"

" I've known him since I was younger than you. He saved my life."

"And do you know him just as well after his return from the forbidden forest?" The girl asked looking at her father suspiciously. Ian fell into a pensive mood and Geralt's face betrayed, that he had also lost the faith in the planned solution for the crisis.

"If you don't believe me you can stay here or come back to America. And fight with more and more dangerous opponents." Will said, going into the room.

"And later watch how blood flowing from Megan's body opens the gate to our world for dark Fearie. Her sacrifice is essential to connect two worlds. You aren't able to understand it, because you couldn't see the truth about that land, you didn't experience it the same as I in the forbidden forest."

All conversations died away and all gathered understood, that they didn't have arguments in order to undermine Will's words. Megan didn't trust him, the same as her friends from the school. The girl was afraid and the presence of parents or her boyfriend didn't help her anymore.

"The problem is completely different. I'm not able to open my passages to Annw. They're completely locked as if somebody stamped them with a seal after I got to the other side. I can't transport you anywhere."

"And what's with your Pooka?" Ian asked Geralt.

"He can't cope. He travels by the very same roads as Will."

"And what if we repeat the way you three entered the Annwn for the first time?" Mark asked.

"We don't have a clue how we got there! After many years I found the conclusion that it was the land that invited us and opened its gates. He can't do this again." Ian replied.

"And apart from that three of us were zonked! Do you think that I would let my daughter inhale the same weed as I so many years ago?" He added.

"Then only one solution remains." Glenda announced.

"Your mother. You must come back to the mother and use her knowledge. There is no other way. I know that you are accusing her of everything, but do it for the good of Megan."

Ian turned towards the wall. He touched his moustache, watched old friends, wife, daughter as well as her acquaintances. He knew that he could make the only one decision.

"Ok. We'll go to her. We cannot waste time, when black clouds are forming above Megan's head. There's only one more question, who will be protecting Megan during our journey? I for sure. Nobody else will be able to talk to Queen Mab."

"I also. My magic can help us. The sweet cover of this land cannot put your vigilance to sleep." Geralt said.

"My knowledge of the land will also be useful to you. I'm able to look beyond this sugariness, as you named it." Will called.

"Of course, I'm also going. I won't leave Megan alone." Mark announced.

"I should tell you to go back to the school, but I know that you would find some remedy to go after us. And if everything was already decided I cannot leave my pupils behind." Shan added.

"I will be waiting for your return and I will greet you the same as today." Glenda said with the great smile.

Jessica and Laura approached the school's fence. Thanks to Sarah, their escape wasn't registered by the monitoring system of the institute. A few students looked at their side, but all of them were just doing their businesses not paying attention to the girls. Laura took the friend to the jeep which she had got from Wolverine.

"Get on. We're going to the city." X-23 instructed the friend.

"I don't know whether we're doing the right thing. Perhaps we should come back to the school and explain everything? After all nothing happened, Frost and others should know that this time I'm not responsible for the appearance of strange, hostile people. Perhaps I'll manage to see my pictures and understand something from my visions?"

"Jessica. They are afraid of you. They will regard you as a threat and they are discussing how to neutralize you, if you would lose the control. I could see when they looked through documents concerning Wanda Maximoff, Proteus and other reality warpers. Frost orders McCoy to do hundreds of tests on you which will last days or weeks. But your vision can come true and then something bad can happen to Megan."

"Ok. You're right. Let us go." Jessica was convinced by the friend. She got the car in and fastened the belt, but she had a sense of guilt all the time, feeling that she had done something very bad, in particular towards her friends from the team. She wanted to come back to the room in the hall of residence and talk with Hope. She wanted to feel her warmth and hear pleasing words like in the old days, when her powers got out of control. This time she treated her totally different, coldly and rudely. She could not blame her that she was afraid of her and didn't trusted her entirely. She looked at blood-stained bandages on her hands.

" I must change my wound dressing." She said to mutant girl sitting beside.

"Look behind seats, there should be a medicine cabinet." Laura replied looking at the route. When girls went away from the front of the school, it turned out that Logan had been in hiding behind the wall. The man tidied the hat up simultaneously smiling.

"Be safe Laura." He thought looking at the direction of the motorbike standing close by.

Sarah could rest at last. Long controlling of devices, very distant from each other and forming the complicated network tired her out very much. The girl lay down on the bed, tried to close her eyes and to relax, but images coming into her head didn't let her do it. Mutant girl noticed how her power worked. Every contact with the new device caused that her mind had filled with information about physics, technology, instructions of use and different other things associated with it. Network smiled, because learning pleases her but simultaneously it puzzled her what the real nature of her ability was and whether they were really differed so much from the power of her sister.

At the same time, Scott, Emma and Dr. McCoy talked about Jessica. Discussion was enlivened, clearly heading towards the quarrel.

"We must isolate her, Hank. I cannot risk the safety of the school. If something happens here like in New Mexico, thousands of people will be endangered. I cannot let the safety of the city to be threatened by her unsteady mind." Cyclops presented his arguments.

"Scott, how can you know that her powers indeed are returning? And she has no control over them? Perhaps she is telling the truth. Her vision can really be associated with what can happen to Pixie. Should you not send X-Men team to Wales to rescue your student instead of thinking how to neutralize the ability of other student? You cannot draw any conclusions before I carry my tests to the end." Dr. McCoy tried to force Cyclops to rethink his plans.

"Ok, Hank. You will complete your tests, but only after the girl is taken into the safe place. I contacted with Reed Richards in her matter. He is supposed to build some generator of a pocket space, where we will be able to safely check what is happening with her."

"A pocket space? Scott, do you know what you are talking about? You treat her as some crazy super criminal! Normal, young girl!" Beast became nervous.

"She certainly isn't normal. A normal woman doesn't destroy the school art studio with her scribble, doesn't make stigmas on her hands and doesn't spreads blood after walls." Frost joined in the conversation.

"And look who is speaking. Remind yourself what you did in her age." At the same time one of Stepford Cuckoos girls went into the room. Emma immediately stopped verbal fight with Hank and turned to her side.

"Miss Frost, I have been doing psionic scans every 15 minutes as you ordered and I discovered a moment ago that Jessica's personality had disappeared from the school. She had to get out of her cell."

"How was it possible?"

Scott at that same moment looked at the monitor at the end of the conference room. As it turned out the screen showed the empty cell with the door carrying tracks of two sharp claws.

"X-23 was there. She freed her."

"Celeste! Check whether Laura Kinney is at school!" Frost ordered.

"She's not there." The blonde replied after a few seconds of the telepathic trance.

"Vale and Kinney. They made a perfect match. They're two of a kind." Emma announced angrily.

"Celeste, call Wolverine here." She added.

"Wolverine isn't on the school grounds also." Celeste answered calmly.

"Jessica. Try to use your abilities. Think about that woman. Call the fragments of the vision, only the ones which concerned her. After all, you remember how she looked like..." Laura talked to the friend sitting by her.

"I don't even know, whether she is still in the New York. I don't even know how to start."

"Think about her, think about what you could see in the funfair, what you could see when you touched the cadaver in the mortuary."

"Okay, I will try." Jessica closed her eyes. She remembered all her previous visions. Or rather a situation and places in which she experienced them, because the details from revelations leaked from her memory or were never registered there. At some point, the girl shouted. She looked at her hands and new bandages on which the fresh blood appeared. Laura stopped the car being afraid what can happen with her friend.

"Your hands..." She said.

"I don't know how it happened, but... my wounds were renewed when I saw that woman. She was wounded, shot, somebody tortured her... pierced her hands with a sword..." Jessica looked at her own bleeding wounds.

"I know what part of the city she was kept in. Old dockland... only there are warehouses which I could see in my mind..."

"Jessica, perhaps you should come back. Somebody must see your wounds."

"No. We're close... let us go there and let us do it." Preview answered, hiding the fact of a great pain she felt in her palms.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Jessica was walking at a fast pace along the street. Old and large buildings of warehouses surrounded her from every side and shadows casted by them granted the surroundings peculiar, musty atmosphere of architectural decay. A minutes ago, the girl had a vision of the pale woman, who had attacked her friend earlier. Wounds on Jessica's hands were renewed for some unknown reasons and her blood dripped through soaked bandages to the dirty and cracked pavement. Laura Kinney was running right behind Preview, trying not to lose her sight even for a split second. She wanted to stop, to talk with her and try to understand her sudden attitudinal change, but the black-haired mutant girl didn't give her a chance. She behaved like something beguiled her, like her living depended on how quickly she could find the place known only to her.

At one point she stopped, simultaneously looking all around as if sensed that somebody or something had watched her from concealment.

"Laura..." She whispered, afraid of being eavesdropped.

"She is here..." She added.

"Who?" X-23 was surprised. Her senses detected nobody within a radius of many meters.

"This woman from my vision. She is here somewhere... something tells me that she was tortured here." The girl clutched her wounded hands from which a few drops of blood fell down.

"Jessica. You aren't able fight with her now. Leave her to me. You'd better come back to the car and return to the school. The smell of your blood is unbearable."

"Too late." The girl replied pointing at the door from which the white-skinned woman loomed into the view. Laura popped her claws in hands out, going in the front of Jessica. The mysterious lady came out from the shadow. She smiled.

"You wanted to meet with me so much that you mindlessly had entered my trap." She announced looking at Jessica.

"I didn't appreciate your abilities... it was my mistake. And who would have thought that somebody as you had been amongst you... the prophet with bleeding stigmas... what have you learnt about me stigmatic one?" She asked. Preview looked at her. She was full of anger.

"My visions are my business. But you're coming back with us to the Institute. You have really a lot to of explanation for us."

"Don't make me laugh little , I wouldn't bother with you... but your gift..." The woman approached he mutant girl. Laura was preparing for the attack.

"Your gift is too dangerous. Your blood, which you're spilling around now, carries the knowledge about what is supposed to come. I cannot let you play with such a dangerous gift." The dark haired woman directed her hand at Jessica's head. At the same time, Laura attacked her violently, trying to cut the neck of the assailant with her claws. Pale skinned was too fast, she used the spell prepared for Jessica to neutralize X-23. The girl, pushed by the spell's power, hit the nearby building. She tried to get up, but the pain she felt in the chest was too intense. She could not catch the breath, or think rationally. Soon, she fell down on the pavement losing consciousness.

"Laura!"Jessica was horrified. It seemed that her new friend had been murdered before her very eyes. The woman the white skin smiled again looking at Laura rendered harmless.

"You should keep your animal on the leash. Look what it tried to do to me. Attack me with a cold iron? What did it think?"

"And now let us finish what we started, ok?" She added.

In the same time, Megan, Mark and Shan as well as Megan's father and his two mysterious companions were travelling by a car along the road going through green, woody areas. Trees surrounded them from both sides, casting a cool and humid shadow on the road. They decided to go to the place of the girl's real birth and her grandmother was the only person who could open the gate leading there for them. Ian wasn't pleased by the idea of a meeting with the mother. He didn't have good relations with her from the day in which he had stolen her herbs and had found a way to the magic land by mistake. He had met with her at most several times and had talked to her on even rarer occasions. He accused her of goblets which had caused trouble to him and his friends, the trouble which they couldn't imagine and she was furious at him, because he had treated everything what her family represented in a completely irresponsible and simultaneously dangerous way. However, this time he had to overcome his dislike for the older woman, because the life of Megan had the most important value. Young mutant could understand her origins and all facts concerning yet and he didn't believe in a lot of the fact given to her by her father. The girl didn't want to go to her grandmother, she didn't want to travel to the other world which even mentioned brought terror to her mind, she didn't want to visit the place of her childhood anymore. The only thing that she wanted, was to come back to America, to the school, to the ordinary life. She was pleased that Mark and Shan had been by her and she didn't imagine going through everything, which had happened to her so far, without their help.

"We are almost there". Ian said.

"Yes, I remember these surroundings..." Geralt announced.

"The Moon like today that night." He added looking at celestial body seen in the sky above crowns of trees.

"We're already driving a few hours. Must your grandmother live on such a remote place? " Mark asked his girlfriend.

"As you see my family is stranger than I thought." Megan replied.

"I should instruct you what you can't do in these lands." Will joined the conversation.

"You aren't allowed to have cold iron there. It's the biggest insult to those beings and if you was caught with something like that in the pocket, a cruel penalty would certainly meet you. Also remember that you aren't allowed to take any gift from anybody and enter into conversations with persons by a chance. Remember that everything there is something else than it seems and a danger can hide even in the most innocently looking things. You must always travel in a group but it would be best if you walk with one of the three of us, because we know that land very well and we know what is good and bad in it. You aren't allowed to walk with other paths than the ones chosen by us."

"We aren't going there as tourists. We have a simple task to do and we'll come as soon as possible." Shan answered stopping the statement of the man.

"Nothing is simple there and definitely not the conversation with the queen of the world." Will announced looking at the woman with icy stare.

"We're here." Ian said stopping all talks. The car was parked on a grassy hill, on which a wooden house stood a few meters farther. The silver moonlight fell on meadows and forests granting the entire neighborhood with an appearance full of magic and mystery. Megan and her friends got off the car, and after a moment Ian and his two old acquaintances join them. The girl was happy that she could finally stretched out her limbs and wings. She looked at the landscape before her feeling the energy filling her organism. The dark night, the silvery Moon, forests, meadows buzzing with wind and night owls hooting coming from the thicket caused that Megan felt in that place like in a home. She was under the impression that she came back from a long journey to the homeland and the entire neighborhood greeted her with an open arms.

"It's wonderful there!" The mutant girl shared her emotions.

"What do you fell Megan?" Will asked.

"It's difficult to describe... I simply feel fantastic. As if I belonged to this place. I could stay here until the end of my days!" The girl didn't hide her emotions. It came to her mind, so that she could throw her entire clothes down and go to dance naked between stones on the meadow, give herself a shower from the lunar light.

"Because it's true. You do belong here." The woman who left her house and came off to meet with guests. She had grey hair and a beautiful face, but ploughed with signs of the old age.

"Mum." Ian said, instinctively turning away her head not to meet eyes of the mother.

"I expected you." The woman smiled coming up to her granddaughter. She hugged the girl looking attentively at her wings.

" I am glad that I could finally see you again." She whispered to her ear.

"You are so beautiful." She added touching Megan's wings, observing her unusual ears and eyes.

"I would be very inhospitable, if I held you in the courtyard of my house too long." The woman turned to everyone.

"As I said, I expected you and I prepared the warm tea for everyone. Megan, I know friends of your father, but you must introduce your own companions to me. Okay?" She said to the granddaughter, simultaneously inviting everyone to her cottage with a gesture of the hand.

The pale woman prepared to give a killing blow to Jessica, who knew that she wouldn't manage to win in the direct fight without her friend. Laura still lay on the pavement not showing any signs of life.

"If you weren't a danger for us, I would take you to my kingdom. Who knows what secrets of the world you would reveal to me, stigmatic one... unfortunately, we will never learn this."

"I'm happy that I won't be looking at you anymore." Jessica closed her eyes preparing for the hit of the lethal magic that knocked X-23 down a few minutes earlier. In the same moment a shroud of the waving, blue glow appeared behind the back of the girl. Soon the strange radiation consumed her body, effectively separating her from her would-be murderess. The pale woman clenched fists identifying the visual effect accompanying the magic well-known to her. The blue light curtain reached unconscious Laura also. Both girls were moved to the completely different place, to the roof of the nearby building. Jessica, disorientated with a sudden teleportation, started looking all around searching for the source of the unusual event. She noticed the girl with purple hair and deep blue eyes standing close by.

"Who you are! What's going on here? " She asked coming to the stranger.

"You are safe. You and your friend. "The mysterious figure replied. Jessica noticed Laura and immediately came to her side. She was glad that her friend lived, although she was still unconscious and very much exhausted.

"It's remarkable. I've never met somebody who would be able to survive the direct use of the Finger of the Death." The woman was surprised.

"What do you want from us?" Jessica continued.

"I saved your life and it should be enough for you. Perhaps you prefer to come back down there?"

"I'm simply fed up with strange persons interfering in my life." The black-haired mutant cooled down. She realized that she could not irritate her unusual savior.

"And she... this pale witch... aren't you afraid that now she will be chasing you also?" She asked.

"Don't you worry about her. My friends will do something with her right away."

Meanwhile, the witch walked in the backstreet searching for the person who had taken the victim from her. She knew very well whom to expect. She was ready to the clash, much difficult than the fight against two children from the Xavier's school.

"Dark Tylwyth Teg... you will pay me for this insult! Your bodies will be destroyed and your souls thrown into the bottomless well for damned!" - A man came from behind the building. He had black hair and dark eyes glistening like stars. He was dressed in a dark uniform resembling the suit with the cape.

"I can see that you aren't such a coward as you look you are". The woman said gladly.

"We only have a courage to look ahead." The man announced pointing his opened hand in the direction of the witch. After a moment, his hand shone with a blue lighting and a stream of the cold fired from it. Snow and ice hit the body of the witch, pushing her against the wall. Pale witch whispered words of some old spell creating the wall around herself. The man didn't stop attacking, although his opponent resisted great chill assailing at her body. Houses and nearby buildings were covered with a layer of a coarse hoar frost and one of windows cracked under the influence of thermal stresses. Long-haired man stopped attacking surprised that the woman still was holding on.

"Interesting. I didn't think that somebody such as you will resist waves of the ice gale." He announced.

"I've already survived much greater cold. Your gale was for me like a touch of a summer breeze. We will see now how you will defend against.. my power!" The woman shouted. She attacked long-haired man with the same spell with which she had tried to take Laura Kinney's life earlier. The energy of the killing beam affected the dark elf, but it didn't make a greater impression on him.

"The finger of the death won't reach somebody who has no heart!" He replied gladly.

"Well... you know that the only thing that can hurt me is fatal also for you. Enchanted cold iron. But you aren't brave enough to take it to the hand and expose yourself to the death, right?" The pale woman asked. The man only smiled.

"I'm not. But I have friends who can." He said and a girl ran out from behind the backstreet. She had short blonde hair and was dressed in a sweater and jeans. She was holding the sword with strange symbols which brought some ancient spells to a mind.

"You... you aren't Tylwyth Teg!" The witch said.

"I'm not! I can see that you're very perceptive! I'm challenging you to a duel!" The blonde shouted. She moved the enchanted sword with the intention of attacking her. The witch didn't want to risk. With a few moves of the hand, she produced airborne phosphorescing magic symbols and teleported into the unknown.

"Bloody hell!, What a coward!" The girl hit the ice-bound wall with an anger.

"Careful. You can hurt yourself. My charms are lethal for people." The long-haired male replied coming up to the friend.

"Nothing. I'm really hacked off. Better take me to these girls who were attacked by the Mab's hired murderess.

"As you wish." The man covered the woman, much more petite than himself, with the cape and soon disappeared with her in the dark fog moving to the roof of nearby buildings. They both appeared by Jessica, Laura and the woman with purple hair.

"Does she live? " The blonde was surprised looking at sitting X-23.

"Yes, she survived the Finger of the Death and she is recovering." The long-haired girl replied.

"What about mercenary?" She asked.

"Unfortunately she managed to escape. She covered up her tracks, so we don't a way to chase her."

"We don't have time for this."

Jessica came up to the talking group.

"Didn't you forget about something? Who are you? What is your connection to that woman? She tried to kill my friend a few days ago. Do you something with this? And perhaps you have some connection with this?" She asked showing bandages on bloody stigmas.

"You got into the trouble chasing murderess! You don't know what you are dealing with!" The long-haired woman wasn't too friendly to young precog.

"Be calm Lorella. She is Gwynn's friend. She has the right to know what is happening." The blonde calmed the friend.

"And apart from that they can be useful to us. There are no prophets among us or men who is gifted to survive offensive magic of the Land of Eternal Twilight." The Girl came up to Preview giving her a hand.

"I am Owen Brice. Friends of mine: Lorella and Loranir."

"Jessica Vale. She is Laura Kinney. How are you associated with Megan?"

"We're here to prevent her murder. We're warriors sent from the Land of Eternal Twilight."

Megan with her friends and acquaintances of the girl's father were sitting in the small room inside the cottage of the mutant girl's grandmother. The entire house was made of wood, semi-darkness and a characteristic smell of the forest prevailed inside it. The candle standing on the round table was the only light source in the room. Colorful Tarot cards lay in a disarray on the table. The old woman used them for divination before the arrival of her guests. She was sitting in her armchair sipping the tea.

"The cards told me that I was going to have unusual guests in today's night. Somebody is going to return after a long absence, because he met an obstacle, which he was not able to cross without a return to his roots. He will bring old acquaintances and trouble along with them. But he will also bring with him strangers and young member of the family. Once again my predictions have come true." The woman smiled to her granddaughter.

"I would like to talk with you so much. I have many questions..." She added looking at Megan. Ian cut her off in a mid-sentence.

"We have no time for after years meetings. I explained you a moment ago what was happening and how grave is the situation in which we are."

"I know this very well. Otherwise you wouldn't turn up in my home." The woman replied taking cards off the table and simultaneously arranging them in a deck.

"If not your home, I would never be in a mess in which I sit now." The man turned his back on the woman and went to the window. He contemplated the moon hanging above the dark wall of trees.

"I warned you what could happen if you didn't think about who we are seriously enough. But you of course had to always know better. You are responsible of everything that happened to you and you should be grateful to the fate, that it turned out the way it turned out, because something much worse could happen to you."

"I knew that the coming here hadn't been a good idea." Geralt replied. The old woman heard his remark and immediately changed her behavior towards the son. She knew that the safety of her granddaughter had been more important than all conflicts which appeared between her and Ian.

"You didn't come here only to quarrel with me. So let us leave our past in a peace and let us concentrate on what is the most important. Megan, were you attacked in America?"

"Yes, twice." The girl answered satisfied that the argument of her family hadn't turned into the aggressive quarrel.

"Amazing. I never thought that beings from the World of Eternal Dusk would be so far from their homeland. It's not their way of life. I don't know much about dark Tylwyth Teg... I have always tried to avoid the contact with these beings... legends which my grandmother handed over to me were terrifying enough."

"Now we aren't dealing with legends, but with the reality. We don't want you to assist us with your knowledge, because you probably understand that nobody knows that land better than us three... with due respect to your knowledge... we only ask you to help us cross gates of the Land of Eternal Twilight... we ask you to open the gate for us..." Will join the conversation.

The grey haired woman looked at the dark eyes of the man, at her son and then at the granddaughter sitting amongst her friends from Xavier's school.

"I'm not convinced that opening gates to Fearie world is a good idea. If dark Tylwyth Teg managed to get to our side of the reality and what's more so far from their home world, if they have means letting them send their own agents to our world, if your words about the invasion of changelings are really true... The Land of Eternal Dusk can be a much more dangerous place than you remember it from your travels... didn't you think that it could be embraced by a war? Or revolution? Or perhaps it is already in dark Fearie's hands... taking Megan there can expose her to a much greater danger."

"If we don't travel to that land, even if now it's embraced by a war... we'll make a big mistake! If we don't take Megan there... war will find her here, on the Earth. And then a lot of innocent people, not having anything to do with you or with us will suffer damage... could you take such a risk? Will you be able to live with such a moral weight?" Will convinced the woman to the rightness of his decision.

" People have already started suffering because of me..." The pink haired girl spoke.

"Not because of you, Megan!" Mark wanted to butt in, but Pixie hushed him up.

"No Mark, it happened because of me. All that's happened recently... it's my fault, the fault of who I am... the fault of my entire family. You aren't a part of this world but in spite of this you were drawn into it and almost died because of this. I don't want to go there, grandma... I'm afraid, because I don't know what I'm going to face there, but I must stand up to it. If thanks to the meeting with my... my real... mother... I'll be able to free myself from this nightmare I won't hesitate to risk. I don't want something bad to happen to Mark, I don't want anyone of my friends to suffer." Megan started to cry. Everyone looked at the shaking girl who tried to remain calm and hide all her emotions. She clenched fists trying not to look into other people's eyes. The old woman decided to act.

"All of you, leave this room. Leave us alone." She said to Ian and his acquaintances. Men left the room. Grandmother looked at Shan and Mark.

"Couldn't you hear what I said? It concerned also you!" Karma led the boy out of the room, although he insisted to stay by her girlfriend's side. The old woman sat down beside mutant girl, touched her hands clenched in the fists.

"Megan... you can stop struggling with your emotions. You can now unleash everything. I'm here only for you." The old lady announced with a gentle voice. The girl looked at her with tear-stained eyes. She put her head on the lady's knees and started crying. At last emotions accumulating in her for a few days could find an outlet.

"I cannot believe what is happening... I don't understand even whom I am... what I am... I have such a confusion in my head... I got used to the fact that I was a misfit... but now I know that I'm a double misfit..." Pixie was talking, stopping every couple of minutes, when a next wave of the crying stunned her. The grey haired woman stroked her head.

"Megan... you are the most beautiful being I have ever seen. When you left the car and I saw your wings lighted by the moonlight I was under the impression that I was looking at the angel. You are angel in my eyes. Observing your friends. I'm convinced that I'm not the only one who think so." Pixie gulped back her tears. After a few minutes of inactive lying on knees of the older woman, she decided to pull herself together. She rubbed her eyes and later sat on the couch.

"I'm ashamed that you saw me in such a state." She said smiling.

"Megan... I would behave similarly when I was in your skin... as a matter of fact I went through something similar at one time..." The woman answered. She wanted to change the subject to something more pleasant.

"This boy who arrived with you. His behavior, his words... everything points at the fact that you're exceptional for him. Am I right?" She asked.

"Yes." Megan replied gladly.

"He protected me, when mercenaries attacked me. He was ready to fight even with somebody much stronger than himself. And he won..." Pixie continued.

"It's wonderful that you have somebody like this. When you come back from the expedition, you must tell me about him. Do you promise?"

"Yes! But... will you agree to help us? Will you do what dad asks for and open doors to the land of my mother?"

"Yes. In the attic, amongst my most valuable gems I have something that can break all barriers separating our two worlds which mages from that land put. Do you remember candles which I burnt when you were afraid of shadows coming from forest?"

"Of course! I will never forget the peace of was feeling, when I looked at the flame mirrored in windows!" Megan remembered moments from the childhood.

"I still have one candle, kept for the special occasion. Glitter of those which you remember thickened a fine border between the Land of Eternal Dusk and the Earth so that magic beings from the other side didn't disturb your dream. This candle can make the border become thin enough that people can cross it." The woman rose from the couch.

"Come with me Megan, we will tell everyone about our plan and then you will help me to look for the candle, okay?"

The girl agreed to the woman's suggestion.

In the same time, Jessica and Laura talked to the three persons who before saved their life a few minutes ago. Laura was alarmed, because her senses weren't able to reveal intentions of strangers or tell her whether they told the truth.

"Have you ever listened to yourself?" Jessica asked rhetorically the blonde standing before her.

"My friend from the school isn't a woman... wait a minute, that's true... she isn't, because she is a mutant! Like me! But what you said a moment ago about Megan... that she is a mongrel of the man and some queen from the magic land... If I didn't live with the X-Men, I wouldn't believe such a load of nonsense! But after all I survived... after all that happened to me recently... " The girl looked at blood-stained bandages on her hands.

"I have an open mind and let us say I believe you." Owena looked at her elven. She smiled to them. Laura came up to Jessica.

"I cannot read anything from their physiological signals. Be careful. " She whispered to her ear.

"Tell me one more time, what your role is?"

"We were sent to the United States to stop the manslaughter of Megan Gwynn. As I recalled, queen Mab - her mother, she wants to murder her since the girl is a tool which can change the Land of Eternal Twilight. I could speak hours about it, because my father prepared me for the role of the guard of the liminal zone between the nature and the civilization since childhood. But I don't want to waste time any longer. Murderers always travel by pairs, so now Megan can be threatened by Mab's second murderer.

"You are late." Jessica announced.

"What?"

"Megan was already attacked. Twice. First time by this pale witch with whom you fought a moment ago and later by somebody at the airport. Fortunately both assailants were defeated."

"At the airport?" Owena suspected the worst possible turn of events.

"Yes. Megan came back to Wales since her father decided to take her from Xavier's school. Everyone were surprised, but nobody could oppose her parents. Fortunately both attacks on Megan failed, because a guardian angel watched over her."

"Guardian angel?"

"Somebody from your people?"

"I'm not aware that somebody else was sent to protect the girl. As a matter of fact we learnt Mab plans fairly recently. Our manner of the communication with the Land of Eternal Twilight is quite slow."

"Could he be somebody from queen's court?" Lorella asked.

"It would be a completely illogical tactics. Why would she send somebody to fight against mercenaries sent earlier by her?" Loranir replied.

"Mab isn't a logical being. Her humors depend on the season in Fearie and vice versa." The long-haired elven looking girl replied.

"Lorella. Could you transport us? Everyone?" The blonde turned to the girl. Laura and Jessica immediately reacted, they had hundreds of questions and doubts, but elf was much faster. She generated the blue fog which violently consumed everyone on the roof of the building. When girls recovered after the sudden and compulsory teleportation, it turned out that they hadn't been in New York anymore. They stood on rock afloat in the strange black space surrounded by thousands of twinkling stars.

"Where are we?" Jessica asked. Laura instinctively unsheathed her claws. Loranir, seeing metal in hands of the girl, moved away from her, simultaneously preparing beams of freezing energy. Owena ran between persons ready for the fight.

"Calm down! We won't be fighting with each other! I moved you here, because I don't want the murderess from Fearie to eavesdrop on our conversation."

"What is this place?" Laura asked.

"It is nexus between many universes. The place which my father found some time ago. We can get to lands closest this plan of existence from here. But the most important is that nobody will enter here behind our back. We're completely safe here. We can complete our conversation."

"Ok. As I said earlier, some strange guy helped Megan. We tried to search for him, but he vanished without trace. Later he appeared at the airport, helped Megan again and disappeared with her and her other acquaintances."

"Damn it, maybe it's too late..." Owena said.

"No... Megan called later... from her parents home from Wales. She was safe and sound and it turned out that this guy had been a friend of her father. The guy had to be a teleporter, he moved on such a great distance in such a short time."

Owena smiled.

"I'm guessing whom he could be. The father told me about the three people and their adventures in the Land of the Eternal Twilight. The girl is in good hands."

"I'm not so sure about it." Jessica announced clutching her bandaged wounds on hands.

"My abilities are less physical than the ones which Laura has. I'm having visions in the sleep or in the reality, visions concerning future events. They are often completely senseless, what was supposed to come interferes with what happened. Since the time of the first attack on Megan my visions started intensifying and concerning mostly her. I had the most intensive vision when Megan got back home. I almost lose my senses. I could see her death..." Jessica locked at Owena, who clearly became sad.

"The vision was so strong that it influenced my body. These wounds appeared in that particular night..." The girl demonstrated blood-stained bandages.

"Perhaps Mab's people set a trap for her?" Lorella asked.

"Or somebody from surrounding of her father is a traitor." Loranir added.

"Or there are more agents of that woman in Wales." Laura said.

"From Nexus we can get into every nook of this planet without a problem. We should waste time no longer. If you want to go with us, I won't stop you. An additional pair of hands will be useful to us." The blonde suggested the cooperation.

"Wait. Did you say you could move to any place on the planet from here?" Jessica stopped her, because she had one important thing to do.

"Yes?"

"I must get rid of them." The black-haired woman said showing bandaged stigmas.

"How?"

"I know somebody who will be able to heal them."

"Of course. Lorella will take you where you want to be. I, Loranir and your friend will be waiting for you in Wales."

"Thank you." Jessica replied. Long-haired elf approached her, simultaneously pointing at the footpath leading along the rock levitating in a boundless space full of innumerable stars.

"Follow me and don't turn aside from the outlined path." She said.

Megan, Mark and Shan as well as Ian with his acquaintances walked slowly towards forest surrounding the homestead of Megan's old grandmother from every side. A dimness of the morning accompanied them, elusive moment at which the night already yielded but a morning still didn't come., Fogs, enveloping mists rose above meadows in the entire neighborhood creating the curtain difficult to permeate for eye. Air was cool, as if it heralded coming rain. Colors of the twilight were gloomy and depressing and feeling of a sadness deepened the fact, that all animals, which disturbed the silence at night, were quiet sensing coming of something bad. A deathly hush and colors made surroundings to resemble some forgotten graveyard, the place from which the civilization walked away a long time ago. All group members went toward the wall of forest in a silence and thoughts of each of them were absorbed with a private matters. The girl recalled the night spent on looking for the old candle in the attic of the house. She and her grandmother searched piles of forgotten furniture and not used appliances, exposed to dust clouds and invertebrates living in them. In the end, the older woman found the lost object: big yellow candle which surface has a sculpture of the naked woman with wings.

"It is the magic object which will help you to cross the barrier between worlds. Glitter of this candle will drive off all ghosts lurking between lands, providing the safe travel for everyone. Its magic is acting only in the short, fleeting moment, the twilight between the night and the morning, between the dream and the real world. You must hurry up, its magic doesn't last forever and will be limited by the last dancing spark on a wick plunged in a melting wax. "

The old woman sat at the window looking at figures walking away, but she lost them very quickly, because of the milk-white fog covering her house. The burning candle on the window sill cast the yellow-red glow on her face as winged women slowly deformed by the heat of the flame.

Jessica and Lorella appeared in the corridor of hall of Xavier's school residence. The girl was surprised seeing darkness surrounding her. She remembered that there had been a middle of the day before her visit in Nexus.

"It's already night?" She was surprised.

"Time passes differently where we were. Do your business and let us come back." The woman keeping her company replied. Jessica ran to one of rooms. When she got inside, it turned out that its owner, Josh Foley didn't sleep and instead of it he read some book. The boy with golden skin was surprised by the sight of his black-haired friend.

"Jessica? What are you doing here?"

"Josh, I need your help." Preview said coming up to the mutant.

"Everyone was loking for you! You and Laura, where were you?"

"Josh, heal it, please." The girl unwrapped blood-stained bandages showing wounds on hands.

"What happened to you... wait a minute, what happened at school... this blood... it's a truth!" Elixir remembered the event which all friends were talking about.

"Who is she?" He added noticing the girl with long hair standing in the doorway.

"Josh, Megan is in a great danger. We have no time to tell about this to the X-Men. Please, heal these damn stigmas and forgot about the entire matter." Jessica shouted at the boy.

"I'm sorry... it's happening to quickly." She added after a moment. Josh looked at brown eyes of the friend.

"Give me hands." He said to her dissatisfied with the way in which he was treated a moment ago. Jessica sat down on the sofa and he put his hands on her hands. The girl at first felt pain which after a moment turned into a feeling of the heat and in the end in took the form of the warmth permeating from the young healer into every cell of her body.

" It's done." Josh announced. Preview looked at her hands on which the only sign telling about wounds was the old, clotted blood.

"Thanks". She smiled to the friend simultaneously rising from the couch.

"Jessica. No matter what is going on, you should turn to X-Men for help. As a matter of fact your appearance at school wasn't unnoticed. Frost will probably send somebody here right away."

"I know and therefore I must go. I don't want to meet with Frost, after she suspected me that I'm losing the mind and the control over my powers again. But she and her friends... " The girl pointed at her companion.

"They saved my life when the same woman, who earlier had fought with Megan, attacked me. My intuition tells me that I can trust them."

The girl left Josh's room and Lorella followed her. She used the magic on the door so that the boy could not leave it for at least one hour. She was ready for the teleportation. In the same moment, Jessica noticed that there was one other person in the corridor. Hope Abbot, dressed in pajama shorts and the sleeveless shirt, stood opposite young mutant and her elven companion looking at her room-mate with a surprise.

"Jessica? When did you come back?" She asked.

" I can teleport of us to Nexusa at any time." Lorella whispered in Preview's ears.

"No." The girl announced.

"If it was any other person, we would escape from here now... but not she... I must talk with her."

"Please yourself. I will be ready."

"Can you wait around the corner? I would like to talk with her in a private." Jessica asked. Lorella disappeared behind the fork of the corridor and Jessica approached Trance.

"Jessica..." The brown-haired girl whispered and after a moment slapped Preview in the face.

"How could you! Don't you care about feeling of others! You can't even imagine how worried I was!"

"I didn't know that I would disappear for such a long time, I'm sorry." The black-haired mutant announced not looking at her friends eyes.

"I thought that the same thing happened to you as then! I thought that he had returned, or something even worse happened to you! You showed no signs of life and in addition I've seen this picture at the school... and blood... it is horrible!"

"Hope, my vision from the picture turned out to be real. Megan really is facing a great danger now. This girl who helped me to get to the school belongs to the group of people, who know what is going on around Pixie. They saved my life, therefore I must trust them."

"What do you want to tell me about?"

"Hope, I'm sorry, but I will disappear again. Together with Laura and people about whom I told you a moment ago, I'll go to Wales and try to help Megan. I promise that I'll be back as soon as possible."

Hope clenched her fists.

"Do you really understand nothing? You behave in the same was as then. You have a problem and instead of ask your friends for help, people who care about you very much, you escape in the company of strangers! Did you learn nothing from last time?"

"It's different now, now the threat is real and comes from outside! It's not connected to me! Don't compare what is happening now to the situation with Sleepwalker!"

"No Jessica, you are wrong, it's exactly the same now! You're afraid and you don't want to ask friends for help again. You don't want to ask me for help again!" Hope approached Jessica.

"I don't want to expose you to danger..." Preview replied. Trance put her hands on girl's shoulders, moved hair covering her ear aside and whispered:

"You're exposing me to something much worse behaving this way. I thought about you all the time imagining what could happen, if you were injured. Don't push me away again... I want to be by your side and help you at any time. I want to shield your back, when a time of the fight will come... and apart from that Megan is my friend also. I want to help her. The same as other Paragons... Jessica, think... if your new is friend is teleporter, it won't be a problem to carry our team where Megan is, right? Besides..."

Hope cuddled up to Jessica's body, embraced her and kissed. When she finished, she continued the speech.

" I'm the only person who managed to hurt this pal at the airport, do you remember?"

"I'll talk with them. Perhaps they will agree on it." Jessica answered.

"Excellent, I'lll go to tell the rest and I'll prepare them for the travel." The girl smiled and ran towards the part of a building housing her room. Lorella came back to Jessica.

"I didn't know that you were interested in women."

"It's much more complicated than it seems to be. " Jessica replied.

"You must not explain it to me. I and Owena... we are also together... but better don't recall it, because she doesn't like to talk about it."

The old woman watched the last sparks of the flame dying down on the candle, when to her house an unexpected guest had knocked. When the woman came up to the door it turned out that it was her old acquaintance, whom she had known from the times when she had dealt with matters of border between two interpenetrating worlds. The man with long and grey hair, dressed in the black clothes stood before the threshold. A locket in the shape of the protective pentagram hung on his neck.

"Remarkable... I didn't spot your appearance in cards." The woman said not hiding her concern.

"I arrived to protect your granddaughter." The man announced.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Your daughter crossed border between lands." the man with a fair hair, standing opposite the throne of his queen, announced. The woman looked at him smiling with a contentment. Mab queen had a long hair of the emerald color, waving on the slight wind rushing into the chamber through large windows. Pair of pointed ears stuck out from under her hair. She was dressed in a long, green-pink dress and rings with valuable jewels were stuck on her fingers.

"We should prepare the most wonderful welcome for her. The ball this world hasn't seen for last thousands of years." The queen told smiling.

"The real party to celebrate our victory." She added after a moment.

"My Queen, you should not celebrate before achieving your goal." The man instructed his queen. The woman wasn't pleased with his statement, but this time, she forgave him such an inappropriate behavior.

"Could you enlighten me why? After all, my faithful servant is doing everything I ordered him. So far nothing happened which could disrupt something that I planned."

"It happened, my lady. The second group of people crossed gates of our infinitely beautiful land. Group of people beguiled by lies of your dark half. " The elf announced simultaneously bowing to the queen.

"What? How did it happen?"

"Probably her people are better than yours. At least, in making friends with the dweller of the world in which the day and the night fight each other cyclically."

"I'm not going to stop you any longer, Elidgar. Go to the Home of Bodily Delights and choose a beautiful woman for yourself... or a man... or anything that will fulfill your needs. You deserve for a a moment of delight."

"Thank you, the Jewel of Eternal Twilight." The long-haired man said, bowing and after a moment he left the chamber. Queen Mab rose from her throne in order to go to the wooden door in the distant end of her chamber. When the woman unlocked the gate using the key taken out from under the dress, stone stairs leading deep under the surface of the earth appeared in front of her eyes. The darkness of the corridor was lightened up by magic lamps casting a green light on the queen's face. Mab was walking deeper and deeper, on the way passing by the secrets of her palace. She saw a large treasure trove with jewels enchanted in times when her world had just formed and dark dungeons from which strange sounds came and black shadows of beings trapped inside were casted dancing on its walls. In the cells, there were imprisoned the most powerful wizards, wanting to get to know secrets of the land of eternal dusk in the remote past. She visited workshops full of mechanical wonders, where rows of automatons danced and played on instruments at the sight of their queen, as well as fiery cages inside which alarmed unicorns neighed. In the end, she reached the end of her walk. She was in an underground cave plunged into the complete darkness. The cave was humid and dripping of water to the underground lake was heard in a silence. When the woman plunged into the darkness of basements, whirring of dogs and the sound of pulled iron chain came to her ears.

"Show yourself, you ugly crone!" The green haired woman screamed.

"Treat me with respect, or else I will bait you with dogs!" some old trout squawked.

"You are brave, you are threatening your queen!" Mab replied.

"These dogs have tasted flesh and blood of gods! You think that they would be afraid of a small elf girl, giving herself on airs?" The old woman hissed. Sounds of chains and a pinking of the wooden cane against the hard stone were heard again.

"What are you here, Mab?" The squawking voice asked, this time with a gentler tone.

"I want you to set off for the hunt." The queen announced.

The old lady looked at her unexpected guest in disbelief. The candle standing on the window sill went out, having turned into the puddle of molten wax. Her granddaughter and people keeping her company crossed through the wall of the mist to the land of everlasting twilight, and the communication with them became impossible.

"Thank you that you notified me of my granddaughter, but you were too late. My son and his two friends as well as new Megan's acquaintances from the United States were here today. If you had arrived earlier, you would have meet them." The woman replied smiling.

"And where are they now?" The long-haired man asked.

"In Annwn. I used my last opening spell to open the gate between worlds.

"Have you went out of your mind woman? Did you send her to Annwn? If I had arrived earlier..." The man said angrily.

"I know about the rebellion in Annwn, I know about dark Tylwyth Teg and that they sent their messengers to America. Megan had powerful allies at her side who defeated these monsters. Ian and his friends suggested to send Megan to Queen Mab's realm and ask her to remove everything from the girl's body which link her with the Land of the Eternal Twilight. Then Megan will cease to be the target of dark Tylwyth Teg. I know that the trip is risky, but it is the only way for the girl to be safe."

"You stupid woman! You sent your own granddaughter to her certain death. Dark elves didn't sent murderers, but Mab Queen and her court did it!" The man shouted at the old lady.

"What are you talking about?"

"They can't remove Annwn's traces from Megan's body, since it is her soul that partially or maybe as a whole belongs to Tylwyth Teg. The only way to free her from this curse is to kill her and throw her soul into infernal gulfs, where she would be imprisoned for the eternity. There is no other way. And Queen Mab is planning such a fate for Megan."

"Why am I supposed to believe you? Maybe Mab isn't a human, but after all she is her real mother. Could she do something like that?"

"Yes. Megan's body is human and beings like Mab hate people, although they are able to enchant them pretending friendship, or even love. But that's unimportant. Megan threatens order in Tylwyth Teg. Megan is something new, something which was not present in Annwn before. Therefore she creates a disorder in the delicate fabric creating that reality. Mab doesn't want changes and she will do everything so that her world remains the same as in the times immemorial. As a matter of fact she doesn't have a choice because forces much older and more powerful than we can imagine are behind her magic.

"If that's true, why Ian and his friends insisted to take Megan to Annwn? After all they knew Mab much better than you. They should guess what this woman is capable of doing."

"They didn't know Mab, because many shrouds of the illusion hide the real her. But the explanation is much simpler than it seems to you. I rule Americans out, because they didn't have a clue about what is going on around us. Therefore, there must be a traitor working for Mab amongst the three of old wanderers."

"Who?"

"I don't know. Geralt is a wizard and the Summoner Perhaps he summoned something more powerful than him? And now he is its slave. Will visited Forbidden Forest, perhaps he didn't return from there, but some demon did? And Ian, he slept with Mab, and she had a lot of chances to cast a spell on him.

"What did I do? How I could be so blind..."

"Don't agonize over it. Lies, illusions and things turning out to be completely different than we depicted them is a part of a common day in that cursed world."

"Where do you know all of that from?"

" From beings travelling across a fine border between our world and that magic place. Their manner of the communication with our world is time-consuming, but effective." The grey man announced.

In the meantime, the group of young mutants belonging to Paragons squad gathered in one of rooms of the hall of residence. Each of them was brutally torn out by Hope Abbot from the embraces of sleep, because she insisted to help her friend even for the price of opposing the school's teachers. New acquaintance of Jessica Vale, dark haired girl with elvish beauty named Lorella promised that she would help the team to go to the place where Pixie, DJ and Shan Coy Mahn had went. One moment later, she disappeared and didn't come back yet. Long minutes passed and young mutants were losing patience. Sarah Vale turned to her sister.

"Jessica, monitoring cameras in the hall of residence really tires me. I can make some mistake and then our plan will be seen by Frost and others. Are you sure that she didn't lie to us?"

"I'm not sure. I got to know her a few hours before. Laura is in that place, Nexus, or whatever... she wouldn't let them go without us."

"Why if something strange and dangerous is happening, it must always concern you?" Wolfcub asked, looking reluctantly at the black-haired friend.

"This time isn't it about me, or maybe you didn't manage to notice it?"

"Are you certain? Megan flew to Wales to her parents and you destroyed the class painting walls with your own blood. What is more normal?"

"Nick, stop. Don't start again." Match tried to calm the boy.

"After all she could create these guys, which you met, with her powers. Just like this madman who almost killed everyone then."

"You start quarrelling again. I regret that I called you here." Hope stopped the unpleasant conversation between her acquaintances. Sarah approached her sister, seeing that the girl was hurt by accusations of the young mutant.

"Jessica, don't bother him. He always behaves this way when he is afraid of something. And he is afraid of everything, therefore he always behaves like this."

Preview smiled for a split second and then grew more serious again.

"Perhaps he is right. Perhaps I'm the greatest threat since Dark Phoenix times?"

" You're agonizing too much. A few stupid sentences should not drive you in this sadness."

"You haven't seen what I saw that night. Strange wounds didn't appear on your hands. Some madwoman didn't try to kill you..."

"You're right. I can't even try to understand what you feel, when all these doomsday scenarios are overcoming you. But you must remember that you aren't alone. You have on everyone and you can count on us. We're with you all the time. Irrespective of what Nicholas is saying."

"I don't need to add anything." Hope announced smiling.

"Yeah... but this girl really disappeared somewhere. Is there something to prepare for?" With a brief statement, Ben took his friends down a peg or two.

Lorella and Loranir turned up in the middle of the dark hospital's corridor. They looked around in order to become convinced that they weren't noticed by anyone. The girl wanted to make the first step, but her partner stopped her.

"Hold on, we cannot let any delays. We must make sure that nobody will disturb us."

"But..." Lorella hesitated.

"Don't worry. Your magic will harm nobody. You're as gentle as rose petals."

"Ok." The girl replied. She raised both hands overhead. In the same moment in one of smaller hospital rooms, two nurses working on the night shift felt very tired and soon fell asleep falling down to the floor. The couple of dark elves moved ahead, reaching at their target. It turned out that they had been on the maternity ward and the room full of newborn babies was their destination. Lorella's magic worked on infants like on adult women, therefore the majority of them was in a deep sleep. As it turned out, the charm didn't work on one child only, lying in the small bed near the window. Couple came near to him, watching him very carefully. The baby was minute, seemed to be unusually delicate and his white darn made the impression belonging to somebody from the other world, somebody very close to black-haired siblings. The child turned his head towards the pair of magic beings, looking at them as if he recognized in them friends not seen a long time.

"Are you sure that he is it?" Lorella asked the man.

"Yes, he isn't sleeping as other children. Look at his eyes, there is a wisdom inside."

"You were like this, Loranir." The girl smiled.

"Yes, you too sister. We are starting."

Couple bowed in order to be as close as possible to the face of the child.

"I remember the oak bearing an acorn..." Lorella recited.

"I remember the hen laying an egg..." Loranir added.

"But I don't remember somebody brewing beer in the shell of the egg. " They both said. Their eyes glowed in blue and eyes of the newborn baby answered exactly with the same phenomenon. The child looked at elves with serious eyes of the adult man.

"I am bringing the message to your world." The child said, with childish but easy to understand voice.

"Mab released the old witch. The hunt began. The Hunt for friends of our real Queen." The prophecy brought by the changelling from the world of Everlasting Twilight sounded. After a moment the tired out child fell asleep. The couple watched him for the longer moment. Loranir rested his hands on the shoulder of the girl.

"Go sister, because they are waiting for us."

" Loranir what will happen with him?" Lorella seemed to disregard words of the brother.

"He will have a life of his own. And if he will be in a danger, somebody certainly will take care of him. Just like us at one time." The long-haired man whispered elf girl to the ear and a moment later they both teleported to the school for young mutants.

They appeared before Paragons group without a warning and having gazed at Jessica Vale, they teleported young mutants, one after the other, to Nexus, not giving them the possibility of expressing their opinion on the compulsory travel. The passage through the gate joining the realities was unusually fast, or it seemed to everyone unused for a transportation of this type. Young mutants appeared in the forest submerged in the blackness of night. There was a lake close by, and everyone with more sensitive senses was able to detect its characteristic coolness and smell.

"What happened?" Ben shouted.

"Who are they? Jessica, tell us what you know!"" Irritated Nicholas ordered looking at the long-haired man with a hate.

"Where is Sarah?" Hope asked, noticing, that there was no Jessica's sister.

"Calm down... we waited for them." Jessica advised.

"Maybe they could warn us, don't you think?" Ben wasn't pleased with the compulsory trip.

"Jessica, I took none of my things." Hope complained. Loranir approached the girl and looked deep in her eyes.

"You will not need them, in the place where we are going. We have no time, therefore we had to work this way." We are very sorry." He added.

"It was my idea. I wanted to speed the things up after I learnt the news from Annwn." Laura Kinney, Lorella and Owena loomed into the view from the darkness.

"Laura?" Ben was surprised.

"I knew that these two sources of trouble would unite someday." Wolfcub announced thinking about Preview and X-23.

"Do you have the latest news?" Jessica asked, simultaneously approaching Lorella.

"Yes. My brothers and sisters don't have power big enough to open the door to the world of the Everlasting Twilight too often. Our gate, through which we will travel tonight, required many years of work... but it's not important for you. However, we have a way to learn what is happening in Annwn. Our wizards send elf babies, which you call Changelings, to the Earth. There is encrypted information in their minds, the newest events concerning the court of Queen Mab. We and other dark Tylwyth Teg living on the Earth are able to decode it. We also came to the Earth in the same manner a lot of years ago. I and my brother Loranir. The last Changeling told us that Mab is going to defend her throne at all costs. She sent Matylda, the old witch controlling bands of such monsters as infernal dogs and astral hounds, fatal for every Annwn's resident. Our travel can be much more dangerous than we thought.

"If we're supposed to help Megan, let us not think any longer." Hope announced.

"And where is Sarah?" She asked after a moment.

"Sarah won't be travelling with us. She was not in our plans. Sarah is too important for our disappearing to be unnoticed by the school as soon as possible."

"And maybe X-Men should deal with it? After all, they have experience in such matters. They were in the Limbo, in other Galaxy..."

"We are the largest group of people who could pass through the corridor to the realm. More persons would close the gate and imprisoned us in the space between worlds."

"Then you should take the best X-Men..." Nicholas cut in on the conversation.

"We must take only the stigmatic one!" Loranir replied angrily.

"If you don't want to go further it's your choice! We don't need others! I will leave you behind in the forest and you will have to deal with it alone!" He added.

"We'll go there for Megan and Mark, ok? We're in one squad and we must help each other. Besides, one X-Man is in Annwn already - Shan." Ben said.

"One of the weakest. Such a comfort..." Wolfcub was skeptical towards the entire idea, and the couple of strangers didn't win his confidence.

"All right... and where the passage about which you talk all the time is?" Hope asked.

- There. - answered Lorella simultaneously pointing her finger on plunged into darkness and of silence lake.

"According to the legend here, at one time, there was a city which was submerged in the preternatural way. Actually, there was Tylwyth Teg stronghold here at one time. It was built in lands, where the barrier between our two worlds is the thinnest. At least according to our teacher. Being brought up in the contemporary world, we don't know much about the land in which we were conceived. We don't know why the Faerie stronghold ceased to exist, neither where this lake came from. It is here that Pooka bring elf children for the swap. These murderers sent by Queen Mab probably arrived from here."

"Won't this place be watched over... on the other side? " Ben asked.

"No. Because it is located at the far ends of Annwn, in the areas where only a few has courage to travel. Mab won't be risking sending soldiers where monsters can wait all along the way. Her castle is guarded and it is enough. Apart from that, she must deal with her daughter and the ones which travel with her, because they are much more dangerous to her than we. And only one of them is a traitor." Loranir answered him.

"Monsters, what else." Wolfcub butted in again.

"Like this one?" horrified Hope shouted.

"What?" Loranir turned towards the lake very quickly, and everyone repeated his moves.

"Maybe this place is being watched over." Jessica added. A very odd figure was sitting on the shore of the lake. It was large toad, bigger than the man, and wings of the bat stretched on her back. The monster looked at young mutants and Tylwyth Teg gearing up for the attack.

"Are you sending monsters against us? How low you fell?" Loranir said smiling. An object resembling the large snow flake turned up at his hand.

"What you are waiting for, monster?" He shouted towards the large frog. In the same moment, the monster beat its wings and jumped straight to surprised mutants. Match reacted in a flash. He formed two fiery balls in hands and hurled them towards the angry creature. Loranir smiled.

"Fire and ice. I like it." he said. He directed the hand at the monster and launched the hundred of ice daggers into it. Two spells reached the frog wounding it badly. The monster retreated into forest in a few huge jumps. After a moment, it returned even more mad than a few seconds before attacking the team. It opened its mouth squawking loud, and shot a smooth tongue directing it at the elf. Laura unsheathed claws in hands and extremely quickly jumped before the long-haired man. A few efficient cuts deprived the monster of its tongue, wounding him and making it more angry.

"You are fast. But don't bring this scrap of metal close to me." Loranir said to X-23, gearing up for the attack again.

"Fiery boy. Hit him the strongest you can." He shouted.

"Ok." Ben replied pointing both hands at the flying frog. Two streams of fire ejected from them, while the body of the elf generated the ice gale. Flames started consuming the skin of the louse, while the freezing cold froze its membranous wings. The monster turned into a heap of steaming and shaking mass in the split second.

"Oh... I feel sick." Disgusted Hope said looking at remains of the large frog.

"We did well. Was it a guard? That was easy" Nicholas announced.

"Too easy. I don't understand what sending this monster was supposed to mean." Loranir was very surprised by his own victory. His sister approached Jessica. Owena who hadn't said a word yet, came to the black-haired girl also.

"Do you feel something stigmatic one? " Lorella asked.

"No, I had no vision. And don't call me this way. My name is Jessica." Mutant girl replied.

"Perhaps the monster carried some message? You must check. I know that touching objects activates your powers." Lorella continued. Preview looked at the atrocious top of intestines.

"No. You won't force me to do it. I have already touched the corpse this week."

"Laura. Bring the slice of it." Owen turned to X-23.

"Ok." Laura came up to the body, moved one of claws from the hand and cut off a piece of the meat. Owens took it away from her and put it into Jessica's hands.

"And now?" She asked.

Jessica was silent. She went completely motionless grasping the slice of the meat tightly. People around her patiently waited for her reaction, but after a moment they decided to act noticing that something not bad happened to their friend.

"Jessie? Jessica? What's with you?" Hope asked watching her friend. Preview released the meat simultaneously making steps in the direction of the group. She smiled widely, but it wasn't a smile of the girl whom everyone knew.

"I am Matilda! I welcome you at the gate of my beloved world! I will organize the wonderful hunt for you!" She said laughing.

"The witch dominated her!" Lorella shouted.

"We must stop her, before she starts casting spells on us!" Owena pressed the sword firmly, preparing for the worst. Laura, sensing her next move, barred her way popping out her claws. She was ready to defend her friend possessed by portentous power.

"But it is you who will be the prey!" Jessica added looking as if she fell into an insane amok.

"Leave her alone!" Hope left the body in the form of astral projection and moved at Jessica with a huge speed. She penetrated through her body, interrupting the contact with the witch. A shout sounded in surroundings. The witch screamed through Jessica's throat, because since sudden loss of the control over the girl hurt her very much. Jessica didn't withstand such a great shock also. Unconscious, she fell down on wet grass. Owena quickly came to her and immediately examined her vital indications.

"She's all right. She is in a state of shock, but she lives." She announced. Hope came back to her body, kneeled down by the girl, firmly grasping her hands.

"Jessica... what have you done!" She shouted at Owena and Lorella.

"Thanks to that we are sure that the message brought by the changeling wasn't Mab's propaganda, but the truth." Loranir called.

"Take care of her and make her feel good again as soon as possible. We have less time than I thought." He added.

"Did you know that it could happened?" Hope asked.

"Yes, it was among many of available outcomes. Be pleased, that it is already behind us." Lorella answered her unwillingly.

"Could something worse happen?"

"Better so that you don't know." Young elf quickly finished the conversation. The tension between her and Trance started to became more and more evident.

Megan Gwyn watched the unusual landscape which greeted her after crossing the border between terrestrial world and the magic land of Eternal Twilight. Grass, trees, clouds and the sky, painted with the evening color, were similar to their counterparts from the Earth and at the same time they differed widely from them. Their colors were more clear, alive, hitting the sense of sight and spurring the entire organism into an action. Every blades of grass, every twig and the leaf of the tree, every drop in clouds moving all over the sky seemed to gleam with its own hue, differing from the thousand of its neighbors The silence prevailed in surroundings, even the wind touching trees and the sea of meadows seemed not disrupt it.

"It's the same as many years ago." Ian announced looking all around.

"Wonderful. The place is more beautifully than I thought." Megan added. When she opened her wings, she realized that shining dust had gone up from them. The girl saw something like that for the first time in her life, although she was able to use abilities which wings gave her very well.

"Don't be deceived by appearances. Remember about what we warned you against." Geralt butted in.

"We are all aware of this." Shan replied. Mark came up to Pixie, touching her gently. The girl put head on his shoulder.

"I am so happy that you are by me." She whispered.

"Ideal place to the date, right?" Mark asked looking at her eyes. He tried to turn her closer to his face and to kiss her, but she broke free from his embraces.

"Not now. My father is looking at us!" She said walking away from the young mutant.

"Let us not waste time any longer. There is a long way ahead of us." Will announced moving ahead. The group went along meadows trampling the new path down on the trail which earlier no other resident of the Earth travelled, passing by places not seen even by the three friends during their past expedition to the Mab's kingdom: vast meadows full of colorful flowers seeming to observe unusual guests with an interest, streams of crystalline transparent water through which it was possible to see diverse precious stones on the bottom. They travelled across dark forests, where the only lighting came from tiny shining sparks afloat all around, behaving as if some internal intelligence controlled them.

After crossing the tunnel from trees connected with each other, the squad came to the clearing, where colorful mushrooms, bigger than the adult person and phosphorescing in the forest semi-darkness as if they were decorated by neon lights from the large metropolis, grew.

"What a place!" Mark spoke.

"Exactly we liked this place the most." Ian informed. Geralt smiled, and Will looked at the different side, as if he knew that something had lurked and kept up with every step of the group in the darkness between trees.

In other place of the land, there was a large garden full of green trees, colorful bushes formed into the most fanciful shapes and never-ending hectares of flowers. Amongst the storm of rose petals, raised by the blowing wind, the man with a golden hair stood. He was the same elf murderer who had tried to kill Megan, when she had went to the airfield and had a lost fight against her beloved. The power of the young mutant deprived him of the hand, but a prosthesis made of a pure gold appeared on its place. The man caught red petals whirling around his head with its help. At some point, the woman in a long dress, green hair and pointed ears entered to the garden. The elf bowed before her and later asked her:

"Have they already crossed gates of our land, my queen?"

"Yes, all of them and the cause of all my problems." The woman replied.

"And is he with her... this charming young man who hurt me so much?"

"Yes... people from the New World are also visiting my world."

"Can I do with him everything what I desire? " The man with golden hair asked farther.

"Yes. You can have fun like never before."

The elf caught a few red petals with his golden hand and delighted in their delicate, nice smell for a moment.

"Calm down everyone! We haven't crossed Annwn gates and we are already at each other's throats!" Owena decided to interject between her acquaintances and young mutants.

"Something possessed Jessica's body, and we are supposed to sit calmly? Never!" Hope assumed defensive positions. The fear for the life of the friend turned into hatred to new allies. Match and Wolfcub joined her quickly.

" I didn't like it from the beginning." Nicholas said.

"How can we be sure that they don't belong to the same group as the other two? " Ben added.

"Stop it! We should now think only about how to help Megan and not fight with each other! Can't you see that the witch tried to break us apart?" Jessica shouted towards the three young mutants. She regained consciousness and felt much better, but she still was very weak and therefore Laura helped her to keep the straightened position.

"Jessie? You should rest!" Hope shouted.

"I'm feeling better and I know that we have a very little time. When we're standing here and quarrelling with each other, they're gearing up to greet Megan on the other side. For a moment, I was connected with the mind for the witch and I could see the world by her eyes. I could see somebody building some strange machinery. Earlier ,I saw pieces of it in my vision. I could see Megan's blood on it! Hope, I'm sure really nothing happened to me!"

"How can you trust them? You know them a few hours, maybe half a day..." Hope argued with Preview.

"I don't trust them. but they're the only chance for getting to that land. They're out only chance to stop what is supposed to happen to Megan." Lorella and Loranir came closer to each other and seeing that Jessica effectively convinced her friend for the change in the attitude towards them, they decided to move matters forward. The man raised hands and his sister did the same. In his hand, a snow flake looking crystal appeared a blue glow shone around fingers of the girl. The water of the lake answered their spells, phosphorescing in the same color as hands of young elf.

"What's going on?"

"What are you doing?" Ben and Hope asked simultaneously.

"We aren't wasting time for unnecessary chatting as you do. We like to act." Lorella replied.

"Ready. " Loranir summed up.

"I can see no passage here!" Nicholas was surprised.

"If you trust me and enter the lake, you will be on the other side." Lorella informed.

"What? Never!" Wolfcub became nervous.

"Do as thou will." Elf girl answered angrily and moved ahead. She came up to the surface of the lake and cautiously touched it with her foot. When her skin disturbed the sheet of perfectly flat water, waves shimmering in colors of blue appeared on it. The girl, convinced of the existence of the passage, went into the lake and quickly disappeared from the view. Soon her brother joined her. Paragons stayed on the edge in the company of Laura and Owena. The blonde put her sword to the scabbard and also prepared to cross the magic gate.

"What are you waiting for?" She said to mutants.

"If it's ordinary water at most you will swallow it! After all the lake isn't even deep." The girl ran towards the lake, disappearing in it like her friends a few moments earlier.

"We're going." Jessica told. Ben was silent for a moment, and then he turned to rest of the mutants not knowing what to do farther.

"We're going. Megan needs us. Mark and Shan also." He ordered firmly. He crossed border between worlds with her black-haired friend. Others also decided to go, they disappeared in the dark surface of the water of the lake, one after the other: Laura, Hope and also Nicholas who could not believed in the reasons for the travel till the last moment.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Hope opened her eyes with an anxiety, being afraid of a view of the mythical land, which borders she had crossed through a doorway opened in a lake. She saw the landscape in total darkness, not lightened up even by starlight. The girl quickly realized that it hadn't been possible to see neither the Moon, nor any other heavenly body in the sky. The surroundings were quiet like being under a barrier impervious to all sounds. In the darkness, Hope tried to find Jessica, her other friends from the group or the men, thanks to whom she was in a place such alien to her. At some point, a glitter of the flame brightened everything around, and Trance noticed Match crossing borders of the Land of Eternal Twilight. It turned out quickly that Preview, X-23, Wolfcub, as well as Owena, Lorella and Loranir safely arrived at the darkest part Annwn. Ben created a flame in the hand lightening surroundings up.

"Better?" He asked.

"It will be better when we are sure that nobody is observing us." Loranir said. His sister approached Preview.

"Stigmatic one, did some visions come to you?" She asked.

"No. And if you call me the stigmatic one again, I won't answer your questions anymore." The girl announced coming up to Hope.

"How are you?"

"I'm ok. Until next winged frog appear."

"We should go further." Owena stated.

"It's too easy. Mab knew that we were arriving. She sent a monster from the lake after us, and then the witch to check us. Even if this place is cursed and Fearie are afraid to come here, we don't know what surprises they are planning for us."

"What are we going to do? How will we find Megan and the rest?" Ben asked.

"We must find our brothers at first." Loranir cut in on a conversation.

"If we don't take advantage of their help, we will never find the road to the heart of the Land of Eternal Dusk."

"Don't you know your own land?" Ben asked.

"No. We spent the life on earth, and we could see Annwn only in our dreams. And it was a land much more beautiful than the place in which we are standing now."

"How did you open the passage? Where did you know about it from?"

"Every Fearie has a method of return home encrypted in the mind from a time of birth. I and my sister aren't exceptions. It is special spell which manifests by itself, and we don't have to learn it. Unfortunately, we can use it only once in a lifetime."

"What?" Wolfcub butted in.

"I expressed myself clearly enough, and my voice was sonorous enough, that all those present had heard it."

"Do you mean that you cannot take us back home?"

"Yes. That is exactly what I meant. But it should not worry you, because chances of staying alive in the magic war which will soon consume that land are almost non-existent for mortals."

"You son of a bitch!" Wolfcub was irritated.

"It starts again." Jessica sighed.

"Loranir's character forces him to be provocative for the others." Owena announced.

"Our team is at each other's throats again. When we finally agree with each other and we help each other, something appears that arouses new disputes between us. Usually I'm cause of the quarrel."

"Are you glad that my brother became the cause now?"

"Brother?"

"Yes. This two has always been like real siblings for me."

"Are I and Laura the only people who remember why we come here?!" Ben shouted at his teammates, busy with conversations and quarrels and forgot the purpose of their expedition. Laura smiled looking at the black-haired friend.

"Listen, maybe I'll look around?" Hope offered falling into a trance. When Owena noticed what the girl was going to do, she immediately ran up to her.

"What are you doing?" She asked shaking the mutant.

"I wanted to look around in the form of a astral projection. I wanted to leave my body..."

"I know what the astral projection is! Are you completely mad girl? A moment ago, we learnt, that the witch Matilda is hunting us, and you wanted to give her your naked soul? The ghost would be as a lighthouse for her astral hounds!"

"How was I supposed to know about it?" Trance answered feeling anger and embarrassment.

"Next time if you want to do something, ask us for advice, ok?" Owena informed all her company.

Meanwhile, in a large garden full of roses, whose petals carried with a wind formed real flower waterfall all around, the man with golden hair walked. His peace was broken by the appearance of the other person, known to him very well. By the gilded gate to the retreat of the man, a pale woman with black hair stood.

"Rhoswen... I can see that you found your way home." The man said smiling maliciously.

"I feel that your magic is becoming more and more faint." He added. The woman fell to her knees arousing clouds of flower petals around herself.

"If Mab found you after your all failures... To be defeated by residents of the Earth several times... The queen is certainly angered." The man with golden hair teased around his friend. The girl looked at him angrily.

"At least I lost nothing!" She shouted pointing at the elf's golden prosthesis.

"But something much worse happened to you, right? You are poisoned by enchanted cold steel, Am I right?" The man approached the kneeling woman and looked at her deep eyes.

"Orin... help me, I beg you." The girl whispered. Watery eyes betrayed, that she was even weaker.

"Do you want me to protect you from the anger of our Queen?"

"No... lend me your flowers of life... regenerative garden..."

"Remember that you will be my debtor now."

"I don't care about it, I wish to live."

"Ok." The man replied gladly. When pale woman fell on the grass and lost consciousness, the elf with golden hair started the recitation of spell's words. Green stalks and roots of flowers growing around the girl came near to her, and soon wrapped her hands, legs, torso and head. Her body disappeared under the ground, becoming an integral part of the magic garden. Orin was satisfied, since saving the life of his friend in the place of his greatest power, he created a faithful helper.

The group of young mutants and three other people, thanks to which, the group entered the Land of Eternal Twilight was preparing for a long and difficult journey through inhospitable and dark forests lying on the border of enchanted lands. Jessica Vale was sitting on a fat root growing out of the damp earth, trying to call lucid dream in her mind, a vision that could show her where they should start search for their friend with wings of a butterfly. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to do it. Her abilities were put to a sleep as soon as she crossed through the surface of the lake. After a moment, Hope came up to her.

"Do we have some cues?" She asked.

"No. I'm completely worthless." Jessica replied.

"We both can't help here." Hope said.

"How are you feeling here?" Jessica asked. Trance sat down by her, on the fat root.

"It's difficult to tell. I'm anxious, because I don't know what can happen to us. I don't believe them." She told pointing at elves and Owena walking around nearby.

"I meant something different. Do you remember our conversation in the Danger Room many months ago?"

"About the artificial sky and the fact that no holographic projection can to equal to the real remote place, under the real sky of thousands of stars?"

"Yes. Here, there I feel something similar. Everything that surrounds us is artificial, false, as if it all was one big illusion covering true reality."

"Do you think that we are inside some holographic projection?"

"No. I don't feel anything synthetic, no cold technique made by the interstellar empire. It's totally different here. This place is real, much more real than the world in which we live and much, much older. On the Earth, I know places in which I feel the Universe observing me with a thousand of star eyes. Here, I feel as if I moved back in time and found myself in the very heart of the world being born. But under the illusion of forest and sky, something ancient and terrible waits. I feel the breath of this place and I'm really afraid."

"Don't talk like this, because I'm afraid now. Let's move and find Megan as soon as possible."

Meanwhile, Owena and Faerie siblings were looking around the place. The long-haired girl was holding a ball of dark blue light and whispering a spell. Blonde girl was watching the sword with runic symbols on the blade phosphorescing with immaterial light. Laura Kinney interested with behavior of two young women turned to Loranir.

"What are they doing?"

"They are searching for signs left by our countrymen, anything that could take us to the place, where they are hiding. Lorella is combing the grass with a magic ball. It is dangerous, because every use of the magic is alarming Mab or worse, that witch. Therefore, Owena is protecting her, forming around her magic barrier. Don't go up closer, because you can impede their concentration.

"I don't intend to do it." X-23 replied. The man walked away from mutant, simultaneously approaching Match and Wolfscub, standing close by.

"I hope that we will be in a lot of glorious battles together in the future." He spoke to Ben starting the conversation.

"And I hope that there will be no more battles." Ben announced.

"What shame that such a great potential is wasted in somebody who is turning away from his real nature."

"What do you mean?" Ben became irritated with a strange Loranir's note.

"The fire flowing in your veins is a gift from the world in which foundations of the real Land of Eternal Dusk stand. Don't you feel calling of the abyss?"

"I don't have a clue what you're talking about! My fire is a result of the mutation, it's physical and certainly doesn't come from this place! I don't have anything to do with the magic and I still don't believe in it! This land is probably in some another dimension, on other planet, anywhere at all but certainly not in the magic world of some fairy tale!"

"I don't understand you people. Why you are inclined to believe in something such distant as worlds circulating around the other Suns, but you are at the same time don't want to acknowledge the possibility of existence of something under your noses? Something that is much more real than all other dimensions, how did you name them?"

"I don't feel like philosophizing! Come back to your women and help them, because searching of safe road takes them too much time!"

"Exactly! Why did you come up to? Do you want to quarrel? Very well. I'm probably the only sensible person who knows that you aren't telling us the whole truth. And this entire mystery tour can be a trap!" Wolfcub butted in.

"From the beginning I knew that you were a wild card of this team, not mentioning your obvious appearance. But here, you can meet somebody similar to yourself, and maybe then the entire anger, you have built up for years, will disappear."

"I don't want your psychoanalysis! Ben told you to go away from here!"

Loranir turned around and, without a word, walked away towards his acquaintances.

"What did he mean? What did he mean with this abyss?" Ben asked, thinking out loud.

"Don't think about it! Can't you see that he runs some games? He's trying to go inside our heads! If I were you, I wouldn't talk to him until we get back to Earth. And I'll have him on the eye."

Hope and Jessica were still talking, sitting on the mossy root.

"Jessica... perhaps you are still are under the influence of this witch?" Trance asked.

"I don't have a clue. Perhaps you're right, perhaps her charms blocked my abilities. I'll touch nothing more until we don't find Megan and return to the Earth."

"What did you feel when she took control of you?"

"Completely nothing. I talked to you, and a moment later I found myself in a completely different, cold, dark and humid place. I could hear my own voice screaming from a distance, but I could not do anything. I lost the rule over my own body. Only the appearance you, your astral projection restored me to reality."

"I'm glad. I think that anxiety, which you feel now, can be remains after the mind of the witch. Perhaps it is she who is dangerous, rather than this world?"

"Maybe. Since when I was in contact with her I've been feeling something cold, dark and humid in myself. Something lurking in corners of my thoughts."

"Jessica..." Hope whispered touching hair of the friend. She moved closer to her and clenched her hand firmly.

"Again, I'm a light which will get you out of darkness." She added smiling. She moved the face close to girl's face and closing her eyes, she kissed her lips.

In the same time, the group travelling with Megan Gwyn admired psychedelic colors of the forest full of a huge mushrooms. The place was strange, unreal, like taken out of some feverish dream. It was horrifying and, at the same time, fascinating. It invited every traveler like a garden full of Forbidden Fruits. Young mutants saw it for the first time, they looked all around like hypnotized by every element of the landscape. Geralt sat down on pink moss, driving off strange, miniature lights flying around.

"Are we stopping?" Ian asked him.

"We'll rest a bit, and let them enjoy this garden." He said looking at the green, phosphorescing mushroom stretching above him in the semi-darkness.

"Better not let them walk away too far. Who knows who or what can lurk behind the hill." Will announced looming into the view. Mark and Megan approached Shan.

"It's so... strange here..." The boy said.

"Yes, but I'm not anxious." Shan replied.

"I feel strange excitement. Like internal joy. As if something sang to me from the distance, and at the same time inside me." Pixie added.

"Shan, I wanted to talk with Megan... to be with her alone. We didn't have time fo each other from the moment when the pale woman had attacked us in the funfair. At first the school and Frost... later Megan's family..."

"All right. Go. It can be ours last longer rest before the expedition to the palace." Shan answered. When young mutants walked away deep into the grove of colorful mushrooms, Karma came closer to Ian and Geralt. Will looked at her suspiciously and later turned away. He didn't feel like talking to stranger, or wanted her finally to confront with the magus, whom she didn't trust from the beginning. Megan and Mark went along the path made from stones glistening with a golden glitter. The boy stopped at one of large mushrooms and touched its surface.

"Strange, it is hard and rough, as if I touched the bark of a tree.

"Perhaps local trees look so strange." Pixie said. The DJ looked at her eyes, and a moment later at her wings shimmering with colorful brilliance, as grass and other plants in the World of Eternal Dusk.

" How are you ok?" He asked.

"To tell you the truth, I started feeling much better as soon as we were in this land. Suddenly, the fear left me, as if I came to a family house after years of exile. I believe that I really came from this place."

"I'd like to be as pleased as you." DJ replied looking in the direction of the wall of forest in the distance. Confused Megan looked at him, simultaneously trying to approach him, but he only sped up. Megan withdrew her hand, staying in the place.

"Megan... you must understand that I cannot share your joy." Mark said. He walked away from the main path and wandered through the hill covered with thick grass. Pixie went a few strides behind him.

"Since when people from this land appeared... they have tried to kill me twice!"

"You forgot that the one they had wanted to kill is me. You only crossed their road by a chance!" Megan was indignant.

"Now we're already safe... both..." She added.

"Really do you understand nothing? It isn't about that they threatened us... but what they forced me to!" DJ violently turned in the direction of his girlfriend raising his voice.

"So it's about it..." Pixie whispered.

"I killed a man! No matter who or what he was! I released such a great energy like never before and I tore him apart to shreds! Even a wet stain didn't left after him!"

"You had no choice! If not you, I would be..."

"It's not true! If I controlled myself better, I would knock him out, or hurt him. But I wasn't able! As soon as my wave hit his body, I could not stop it, I could not even control it. What will if it repeats? What will if I lose control again? If somebody from the group is hurt, somebody from the school? If you suffer?" DJ said with tears in his eyes.

"You won't lose control, I believe in you..." Megan announced. She approached the boy and touched his hand.

"Emotions are raging in me, you should escape from me. Quickly." Mark replied through clenched teeth.

"No. Do you remember when you calmed me down with your music one time? Now it's my turn. Close your eyes and don't say a word." The girl touched boy's head.

"Megan, I..."

"Quiet. I asked you for something. Close your eyes and try to relax."

DJ relaxed and tried to silence emotions inside him. When he closed his eyes, the swoosh of the wind whipping meadows of the magic land, moving crowns of trees lying in the distance, reached his ears. The wind, creating silence and calmness which he needed so much. He felt the warmth of his beloved hands and gained the belief that it was she who asked the nature surrounding him from every side to soothe his soul. When he opened his eyes, he saw Megan's eyes and her delicate smile. He looked around himself.

"We walked away too far the rest." He said looking at green hills and a few huge mushrooms growing out of them.

"If this was true, they would search for us." Pixie replied. She pointed at the closest mushroom, shimmering with a purple brilliance.

"Come on, we'll sit down there and talk." She suggested. Mark agreed and moved in the direction of the strange life form, holding his girl by the hand.

In the same time, Shan tried to start a conversation with the old acquaintance of Megan's father. The man in the raincoat sat on the hill examining his weapon, at first completely ignoring the presence of the girl. Seeing that Karma didn't intend to leave him alone, he hid the handgun under the coat and turned to the woman.

"Are you trying to get to my mind? You will fail. Do not even try."

"Why do you see me as the threat?"

"Let's say I can see it in your eyes. They're on a fire with hate to my person. And I completely don't understand why." The man replied.

"Look around. You will find the answer yourself."

"I cannot understand it. You hate me because some group of dark Fearie, which I don't even know, attacked your pupil."

"If not you and your pals, nobody would threaten Megan's life. Why you interfered in matters, which you completely didn't understand? Who gave you the right to interfere in matters of this land?"

"If not our expedition to Fearie, nothing would threaten Megan. You are right. Because she would never be born."

"This conversation leads us nowhere." Shan replied.

"For the first time, we agree. It is impossible, that a miracle happen, and you start to trust me and my companions. Therefore it'll be better if we stop talking to each other. Protect your students, after all you decided to go through the gate with us between worlds because of them. We will do our job and ask Queen Mab to take the curse off from the girl."

"Or we'll force her to do it." Ian added joining the conversation. After a moment, Geralt got up from the grass.

"You lost the time for an unnecessary conversation with me, when Megan and Mark go somewhere." He announced.

"What?" Shan was surprised and alarmed.

"Look around. They aren't here." The man said.

"I'll go to look for them." She added.

Mark and Megan were sitting under the cap of the psychedelic mushroom gazing at the night sky stretching out above their heads. Pixie's thoughts had been somewhere else, or ran out in the future, trying to imagine how the approaching meeting with her real mother could look. Mark was silent, not butting in, since he knew that the girl needed the moment of peace after such a crazy week. He looked at the meadow before himself noticing that, around the large mushroom, other mushrooms, smaller and placed in a perfect circle grew. He remembered legends of Fairy rings which could turn out to be more real than he had ever thought. Suddenly, something tore Megan out from her thinking. The girl got up spreading her wings.

"What happened, Megan?" DJ asked.

"I saw something..."

"What? There is nothing." Mark said looking all around.

"I saw something strange... wait here..." Pixie walked away from the mushroom, heading above.

"Megan, where are you going! There is nothing!" Mark got up from grass, reminding Geralt's warnings.

"We should not split!" He added.

"I'll be back soon... I must inspect something!" Megan replied waving at him.

Girl climbed up the hill and looked at clearing on its other side. Her eyes widened from an amazement. A group of unusual beings stood in the darker part of the meadow, next to a black forest. Eight slim, young girls with golden hair looked at mutant smiling. They were completely naked, and wings grew out of their backs, resembling the ones belonging to Pixie.

"Who are you?" Megan asked noticing that strange figures had the same eyes as she. Girls grabbed hands forming a ring from their bodies. One of them dragged the hand out to Megan, inviting her to join them. Pixie, like hypnotized, took a few steps in the direction of the strange company. Completely automatically, without the participation of the reason, she gave the hand to the magical being standing closest to her. Mark quickly came to the other side hills in order to check what happened with the girl, who was not answering his calls.

"Megan!" He shouted, when his eyes noticed Pixie standing amongst naked figures. Young mutant smiled to him in a strange fashion, as if she was mocking him, being glad of what was supposed to happen to him in a minute.

She spread her wings ejecting a cloud of hallucinogenic dust in the direction of the boy. Dazed by chemicals, DJ fell down on his knees. Impulsively, he reached for the discman, but his body was embraced by a paralysis. Naked, ethereal figures rose up into the air and, after a few seconds of flying around the hill, they surrounded Mark in the same way as a few minutes earlier they had surrounded Megan. The boy wasn't able to fight, call for help, or think even rationally. The image in front of his eyes waved, being discolored in a crazy psychedelic way. Pixie approached him and touched his head, not getting rid of a bizarre smile. To ears of the boy a laughter of girls came, that seemed to him to come from thousand sought throats. Megan took the shirt off throwing it at Mark's legs. After a moment, she unzipped trousers, sliding them down below knees. The boy raised his head up, looking at the girl's body. Young, elf girls dancing around them became one being, a wave pulsing in a permanent, determined orbit. Megan unbuttoned her bra and threw it behind herself, showing naked breasts. Her underwear flew up, where it was seized by one of fairies. The girl freed herself from trousers and shoes, and then rose into the air, landing right by her beloved next. She approached him, touching him with her naked body, sprinkled with hallucinogenic dust generated by her colorful wings. Mark didn't know what had happened to him. His hands felt the warmth of girl's skin, but other senses were entirely blinded by shimmering airborne dust. Megan made the last movement in her magic erotic dance. Her pants slipped down after smooth legs and landed in a grass, by knees of the boy. Pixie became beings similar to her fairies, bare and with a second thoughts, submerged in an ecstatic dance.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team reached the hill. Everyone were surprised by a sight welcoming them.

"Megan! Mark! What you doing!" Shan shouted.

"Girl!" Her father was shocked.

"I knew that a visit in this place won't be good." Will added.

"It's not their fault. These beings took control over them." Geralt announced.

"We must help them!" Shan said.

"Perhaps we should not disturb them." Will offered.

"It's my daughter! You must do something, for Christ's sake!" Ian was irritated very much.

"We must break their ring. It is the only chance, because they both are under the influence of a powerful magic." Geralt noticed. Shan tried to use her abilities to take control over the mind of one fairy girl and to cease her play, but she wasn't able to touch her thoughts.

"What are they? As if I touched something unusually slippery."

"We have to fight their magic with a magic!" Geralt geared up for the attack.

"Forest girls! I'm ordering you to leave these two alone!" He shouted. Unfortunately, his words got through to none of girls. They all were too busy looking at Megan dancing, in a nude, before her boy.

"It's nothing, negotiations won't help..." Geralt said, and attacked girls with balls of magical energy. Unfortunately, he didn't manage to break the circle, or even to get attention of any of forest nymphs with wings of the butterfly.

"What are they, for Christ's sake!"

"You cannot touch them now. They are merged." Will butted in.

"Do you have any good idea?" Geralt asked.

"Of course."

Will smiled ominously and generated a blue flame in his hand. Then, he hurled it at one of naked girls. The figure broke away from the rest, moved a few steps in the direction of the forest, and convulsions shook her body. Wings fell out from her back, the skin started becoming wrinkled, and hair grayed. The girl got older by decades during a few seconds. Her body shattered in front of everyone's eyes, and only a heap of ash remained. Remaining nymphs stopped, ceased their dance looking with a terror at what had happened to their sister.

"Do you want to join her? If not, escape from here and get in our way ever again. Do you understood?!" He shouted. A blue flame burnt in his eyes. Frightened girls rose up into the air, and escaped into the forest thicket plunged in a darkness. In the middle of the ring, trampled down by their feet, only disorientated Mark and Megan remained.

"It's not Fearie magic..." Geralt said looking with a fear at his companion.

"No." Will replied coldly. He walked away from the group.

The old witch was standing at the crossroads, tightly clasping the gnarled cane. Her long, pitch-black hair was blowing in a breeze made from the bad magic sleeping in the heart of the old woman. The lady looked at the silver moon hung high above her head, listening closely to horrifying howling coming from nearby forests. On hills plunged in a darkness, a pack of astral wolves was waiting patiently for orders from their master. Specters of animals phosphoresced with a bluish glow, similar to the lunar light, but colder and frightening. Apparitions had shapes of wolves or bigger dogs with semi translucent bodies, looking like joined to each other by their internal glitter. When the witch lifted her cane above the head, animals stopped howling, and their empty eyes focused on her.

"I am calling you on, cursed kings! I am calling you on, forgotten Gods! I am calling you on, warriors! Come here from the deepest infernal lands!" She shouted. Large, black clouds covered the disc of the moon, and then, the disturbing glitter of astral wolves and infernal hounds were the only light in the surroundings.

"I feel the ancient power in my bones again!" The witch hissed.

"I have my former power!" She added after a moment, with a great satisfaction. The Earth around the witch started shaking. Neighborhood became covered in the unnatural fog. Even spectral animals were afraid of it, they cautiously moved back in the direction of the forest. After a moment, deathly pale hands keeping swords, battle hammers and axes emerged from a dry land. The witch, seeing that her calling reached addressees, stuck the cane in the soil and touched the locket hanging on her neck. Dark figures rose from the earth, whose sole purpose was to be included in the Wild Hunt, completely controlled by the will of the black-haired woman. Bones awaken from the eternal rest started being covered with skin, as grey and as gloomy as the dress of the witch. Armors, elements of clothes and appeared on undead bodies, weapons which owners probably used when they had been alive. Many figures were sitting on the riding horses, also arose from the grave, some having a skin and other made out of just bare bones, all animated with a black magic. Other ghouls were standing on their own legs, holding deadly weapon as bows, crossbows, swords and axes. Destroyed crowns graced a lot of heads, confirming that figures had been men of consequence in the past.

They didn't have a free will, and their every action was controlled by the magic for the dark witch. A chariot pulled by two spectral horses drove up to the place in which the woman stood. The witch climbed on it and let everybody know that the hunt had been begun. One of kings summoned to the life, the man with a long, grey beard, put a horn to his mouth and blew it with all his might. Wolves and astral hounds joined to the Wild Hunt. They blend with the group of horses and walking participants of the hunt. Soon, the entire group moved deep into lands of eternal twilight, hurrying for the meeting with uninvited guests.

In the same time, the man with golden hair waited for the regeneration process of his friend to end. The elf's garden consumed the body of injured and poisoned Roshwen, and in the place in which she had disappeared under the surface of earth, bloody-red flowers grew. When the carpet of plants moved, golden haired man broke from reflections and started gladly scrutinizing the occurrence. The hand of the woman penetrated through the tangle of branches, stalks and roots. She wasn't white, as earlier, but her skin took brightly green shade. After a moment, the entire body of murderess emerged from flower ring. Seeing her transformation, the elf smiled widely. At first, she was disorientated with her change, but the girl quickly noticed something unusual, she guessed how big a price she had paid asking Fearie with golden hand for his help. Her skin was of the color of grass, and her hair were dark-green like leaves of oak. She felt every blast of wind falling on plants in the garden and every ray of sunshine touching their surface. She became connected with that place with bonds so strong that no power was able to break them.

"What have you done with me!" She shouted looking at her hands.

"What you asked for. I saved your life. I expect your lifelong gratitude now." The man replied.

"You changed me! You connected me with this garden... you turned me into a plant!" Roshwan vented her anger attacking the elf standing before her with harsh words.

"This is the nature of magic of this place. Venom of cold steel poisoned your body too much. There was no other way and you knew about it very well. Did you think that I would help you without any benefits for myself?"

"Do you know what it means to me? I am sentenced to live in this place! I will not be able to leave this garden ever again! You imprisoned me!"

"Your life here became a part of my plans. Therefore we both gained something. You have a life, a long live, this place is magical and will survive throughout centuries. I have somebody who will perform a task for me, when a time comes."

The woman was silent. The magic transformation of her body which she had experienced, due to of elf's trickery, was becoming stronger with every passing minute, and the connection with the magic garden became more and more permanent. The elf smiled, and then bowed to her friend.

"Forgive me, but I have got something to sort out. You know, our land is vast and I still have so many places to visit." He announced, and then disappeared in the cascade of rose petals.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

The eyes of dark elves pointed at the magic path, visible only for people born from the land of Eternal Dusk. Strange runic symbols, letters written in ancient language, which covered trunks of trees, showed the way to the home of other beings similar to them, hiding from messengers of the Palace of Illusion.

"I've found it." Loranir announced coldly looking at the group of mutants impatient with his long ritual of seeking signs. Jessica and Hope sitting on trunk with covered moss, Ben and Nicholas whispering, quietly enough so nobody hears them and Laura Kinney standing in the seclusion, everyone looked at the dark elf.

"I can see it, wonderful elaborateness of spells!" Lorella replied.

"I still can see nothing." Owena announced.

"Your magic won't be useful here, because our blood isn't flowing in your veins." Loranir spoke going toward the thicket.

"Loranir!" His sister shouted at him, seeing that he hurt her friend with fair hair.

"I have enough inessential conversations. We are going! Our family is waiting for us." The long-haired man said and moved where the path was hidden according to his senses. Laura Kinney followed him without words. Ben made a gesture toward the others.

"Nick, Hope, Jessica, we're going!"

"Remember to be on our path all the time. You cannot turn aside from the magic trail, or you will never come back. You will be endlessly wandering between dark trees. Here, time and space aren't what you are accustomed to."

"Jessica, can you see this path?" Hope asked trying to learn in what state the abilities of her friend were.

"No. I can see only darkness. But it is you who is able to discover hidden signs, not me." The black-haired girl answered smiling gently.

"I won't risk the astral form. I prefer to believe them." Hope replied.

Meanwhile, the whine of astral wolves and infernal hounds penetrated horrifying silence of the dark forest, and the blue glow emanating from their spectral bodies lightened the moonless landscape up. The stamp of horses revived with their men filled the space with the portentous rhythm, like the sound of drums of the foreign tribe of cannibals. The old witch stood on the chariot harnessed into two bony horses, raising the cane above her head. Her face raked with wrinkles was twisted in a euphoric joy. One of participants of the Wild Hunt, the man attired in a hooded black habit, approached the chariot of the woman.

"My lady, I can see signs." His voice got out of the darkness of the hood.

"Signs?" The woman squawked.

"Magic of dark elves, somebody used the spell of finding the path."

"Baloney!" The witch got angry.

" I would detect such a magic!" She added.

"My lady, my magic comes from the land of the dead, while you are still striding over the world of the living. I can see things hidden from the eyesight of others." The man said.

The woman looked at him portentously, but she didn't have a reason not to believe him.

"Lead!" She screamed. Hooded man drove his horse and soon he was at the head of riders.

The group of mutants travelled across the path discovered by elf siblings. They left the forest thicket and entered the meadow bathed in the silver moonlight. In the distance, there was a forest lightened up by strange point lights. Wolfcub observed the e phenomenon with an interest, noticing the periodicity of flashes. After a dozen minutes of the walk, he saw something that disturbed the order of lights. New sources of light, seemingly coming closer and closer to the group, appeared above the horizon. The boy announced his observation.

"Listen guys, these lights... they appeared just now."

"Don't mind them. If you don't come up to them, they will do you nothing wrong. Just ignore them." Owena said.

"It can be difficult. Because they want to approach us." The boy replied.

"What?" The blonde was surprised. When she looked at the direction of blue light glitter moving along the meadow, she discovered the terrifying truth. Lights weren't what she had taken them for. When they were close enough to the team, it turned out that they had originated in ethereal bodies of astral wolves, tracking dogs belonging to Matilda.

" Damn it! These aren't will o' the wisps! Lorella! Raise the shield! immediately!" She shouted.

"What's going on?" Jessica asked.

"Pack of astral wolves! They cannot touch us!"

Lorella raised hands, producing the protective shield, around herself and all persons of the squad in the form, in the semi-translucent, semicircular structure. Spectral animals surrounded the barrier from every side.

"Astral? As my projection?" Hope asked.

"If I were you I wouldn't try to look for the agreement with them." Lorella said.

"Can you hear it? Like somebody blowing the horn." Laura announced. Eyes of everyone turned in the direction of the hill where the group of dead kings mounting dark steeds was approaching. Each of them was armed with a sword, an axe, a mace or a cane, the Wild Hunt was manned by undead mages. Infernal hounds ran by riders, and the chariot with the witch Matilda was driving in the very centre of the procession.

"It's Wild Hunt! Mab sent Wild Hunt against us!" Frightened Owena announced.

"It's she! I know her! It's the same witch who took control over me earlier!" Jessica said recognizing the woman standing on the chariot.

"But we're protected by the crash barrier, right?" Hope asked unsteadily.

"No. Wolves and infernal dogs won't get inside, but Lorella's magic won't save us from revived dead!" Owen told her the truth.

"Everyone who can strike the opponent from a distance! To the forefront!" Loranir ordered. As it turned out, only he and Match could attack from a distance. Lorella wanted to fight also, but her brother didn't let her.

"You must hold the barrier. Without it our souls will be devoured by astral wolves."

Owena prepared her sword with gleaming runic symbols.

"Laura! Wolfcub! Owena! We must be ready for the direct fight. Jessica! Hope! Protect Lorella and keep her safe from swords."

"Boy... prepare for the fight." Loranir announced with a satisfied smile painted on the face. Ice shapes looking like large snowflakes formed around his hand. Match made two fireballs. The army of undead warriors was closer and closer. Loranir attacked with a rain of ice daggers. Frozen horse's legs broke under the stresses and smashed into shreds, forcing knights to the hard landing. Streams of ice hit weapons kept by ancient kings, effectively damaging them. Many undead were cold resistant and in spite of loss of their riding horse and coming off their hands, they still marched ahead. Ben's fireballs hit ground between riders knocking them off steeds, setting them and their riding horse on fire. Dead bodies revived by the black magic didn't stop going, even when they became flaming bones. Many of riders got through Lorella's barrier, avoiding attacks of her brother and the fiery mutant. Armed into swords, maces and axes, they attacked X-23 and Wolfcub. Girl cut opponents' limbs, and heads using her claws in hands, legs and the natural agility. Wolfcub also tried to use his own claws, but he was much less effective than his friend. He barely managed to defend himself against attacks of one opponent. Owena cut her opponents with enchanted sword which made them feel pain and forced to retreat. The old witch stood on the hill observing the fight. She eyed everyone around, in particular the strange behaving astral wolves. Soon, she guessed why they hadn't been active. She turned to her hooded companion.

"The enchantress did something for my hounds. I cannot allow it."

"I understand." The dark man replied. He took out the bizarrely bent silver scepter, pointing it at Lorella. He fired ball of the magical energy at her. The spell missed Jessica and Hope and hit Lorella into the back. The girl was deafened, she fell to the ground. The barrier protecting the group from spectral wolves disappeared. Apparitions were disorientated for a moment, but they quickly recognized their targets. Hope looked at astral bodies knowing that each of her companions was in the danger of death. Not thinking long she decided to act. She remembered that astral wolves could be lured to her own astral projection as moths to the light. She ran to the middle of the meadow simultaneously using her abilities.

Hope' astral projection was floating above the body of the girl gleaming like a full moon on the black sky. Astral wolves broke the attack on mutants and their companions, started watching the unusual phenomenon. The girl seemed to them to be something perfect, something about which they had dreamt for centuries, being imprisoned by Matilda's black magic.

"I can hear you! I can hear your thoughts!" Hope said smiling. She felt emotions swarming in ethereal bodies of animals. Suddenly, the chains with which the dark witch bound them, when they traversed the boundless ocean of stars, started to feel heavy. Astral tears, gleaming like diamonds flowed down her cheeks and at the same moment, her physical body also started crying.

"Hope!" Jessica got scared seeing demonstrations of her friend's power. She thought that wolves would attack her tearing apart and devouring her soul. Laura Kinney protected her from the sword of the undead who approached her using a moment of carelessness.

"Jessica, go away from here! Hide in the depths of the forest! Your abilities won't help here!" She shouted cutting the hand of the monster keeping the sword. Others were too busy with the fight: some of them were winning, like Owena, whom sword the dead kings were afraid the most, others had more trouble like Loranir, whose cold wind was nothing to people with veins without blood, or Match wh was able to burn the meat down from bodies of hunters, but he gained far more worse opponents instead in the form of burning skeletons.

Hope established a bond with all astral wolves, the connection letting her understand what these beings were and what they wanted actually. In a flash, she showed them who was their real enemy. All etheric beings turned against their old mates. Some of them attacked the infernal hounds, others moved to help Trance's friends. Soon, a chaos turned up in the Wild Hunt, and the mutants' group gained the time needed for the withdrawal.

"She did it!" Ben said.

"She reached an agreement with these apparitions!" He added.

"Amazing." Loranir said calmly.

"Lorella, have you regained strength?" Owena asked the friend shocked after the attack by the dark mage.

"One moment, I only need one moment."

The witch, seeing that Trance was the source of her problems, decided to eliminate her from the game. She hit the earth with the cane, simultaneously turning to the man in a black habit.

"Your wish is my command, my queen of the night." The wizard said mounting the horse consisting of black bones. He dashed off towards Hope, taking out golden talisman compound of a few golden snakes slithering around each other. Whispering spells in a language of infernal circles, he hit the girl with the amulet, forcing her ghost for the violent return to the body. The shock caused that Hope immediately had lost consciousness. The wizard kidnapped the mutant girl and put her on his steed with a fast move, then dashed deep into the dark forest. Unaided astral wolves were taken control by the evil power of Matilda's spells.

"Hope!" Jessica shouted, wanting to run after the kidnapped friend. Laura quickly came up to her, not letting her move.

"Let me go, for Christ's sake! Let me go, do you hear me!" Jessie said, looking at the silhouette of bony horse disappearing in the darkness.

"No. You wouldn't survive there." X-23 replied knowing that her friend wouldn't run even a few meters being punctured by swords of dead kings or destroyed by the magic of their wizards.

"Now!" Owena shouted. Black-haired elf summoned the most powerful spell of the transfer she knew. It reached all group members, except Hope who was already beyond her reach, broke magic barriers imposed by the hooded magus and teleported the group from the place of the battle, which they didn't have a chance to win.

The horse of the hooded man galloped along the narrow path, skillfully avoiding aged tree trunks. The girl held by him was dazed, she didn't realize that she had been all alone and was walking away from the rest with every passing moment. The dark rider stopped on the slope full of fallen leaves. His spectral horse snorted with a supernatural laughter. The man threw Hope so firmly that the girl stumbled after slippery leaves into the bottom of the ravine, stopping on the root sticking out of the earth. The rider looked at her motionless body for a moment and soon returned to the route leading to his horde.

Flash of the teleport spell lightened up trees of dark forest bathed in the darkness, and young mutants and their travelling companions materialized a long way from the battle against forces of the witch. Jessica broke free from X-23 hug and immediately ran to the black-haired elf.

"Let us come back there! Move me there, immediately!" She screamed. She cooled down after a dozen seconds, noticing that convulsions were shaking the body of the young enchantress. Owena pushed Jessica, hurrying to help her friend.

"Can't you see what is happening with her! She needs help!" She shouted taking Lorells in arms.

"Do you know what she did? Hope is alone with those monsters! We must come back, help her." Preview said.

"Lorella saved our life. Perhaps it cost her own." The blonde replied sadly.

"Loranir! Come here! We must stabilize her!" She turned to the brother of the unconscious girl.

"The hell with her!" Jessica said, not hiding emotion. Think about Hope, alone amongst dozens of undead warriors and in the company of the crazy witch, horrified her.

"Jessica..." X-23 tried to calm the friend.

"Leave me alone, all of you." Preview didn't feel like talking with anybody.

Wolfcub and Match, still disorientated with the teleportation, were thinking what to do. Nicholas was furious, he accused Owena's group of everything, and his fiery friend tried to remain calm.

"That's all their fault! We did what they had asked for, not giving some thought to consequences and now Trance disappeared. Maybe she died! We should force them to take us back to the Earth. We lost Megan, Mark and Shan, and now Hope. Who's next?"

"Nick. They also suffered damage." Ben announced pointing at Lorella, whose body was still fighting with the magic of the witch, poisoned by a trap preventing teleportation.

"I don't like it too, but we walked in this mess too far. We can't move back, we must go further."

"You should not lead this team. You aren't suitable for this work!" Nick shouted at the friend.

"What you want me to do!? I don't even know where we are now! Where am I supposed to go from here?"

"I don't know. Tell X-23 to force them to the obedience! Threaten them with flames! Order them to take us home."

"And do you want me to leave Hope here? Do you want me to run away from what can happen to Megan?"

"We shouldn't be here." Wolfcub quickly finished the conversation.

Meanwhile, Hope Abbot regained consciousness. She was still in a state of shock after the compulsory termination of her astral travel, her senses didn't accept stimuli coming from the outside world. When she opened her eyes, the world whirled around her, and starlight penetrating through the thick labyrinth of the branch seemed to be blindingly bright. A noise was heard inside her ears, a distant conversation that she heard at one time in her life, and which returned in order to harass her like music played endlessly from a broken gramophone record. The mind of the girl started recording stimuli, but only the ones coming from her own body. She felt pain in the back, the hand and both legs. Every smallest move was difficult for her, and her bruised body rebelled. After minutes of inactivity which seemed to last the entire centuries, the girl found strength to get up and sit down, having leaned against the dry root. When the image in front of her eyes stopped whirling, she examined her body noticing no greater wounds, only bruises, scratches, wet earth and leaves. The first thought which turned up in her mind was about a big luck she had. She became a target of two powerful, magic beings and came from this meeting almost without any damage. Soon, the entire gravity of the situation, she was in, reached her awareness. She was far away from her friends, far from Jessica. When she fought with the achy body, Jessica had to face up the strange monsters which could tear her apart to shreds with their teeth, destroy her with the ancient, evil magic or cut her with rusty swords. Hope tried to get out of the body and in the form of the astral projection to help friends, but turned out that she was too weak. She felt that she had started losing consciousness. Before falling asleep one of her last thoughts was to recall the words of elves advising not to turn aside from the outlined path, because it would be impossible to return to it. But she turned aside.

Jessica stood in a clearing, a long way from other members of the team. She was already calmed, she didn't insist to go back, because she realized that the lonely travel through dark forest would end for her tragically and certainly wouldn't help Hope. The moonlight fell on her face and black hair. She heard the rustle of the cape on the night wind. As it turned out, Loranir approached her. Jessica wasn't pleased with the company, but she didn't want to drive the elf away.

"Are you calm?" The man asked.

"Yes, I'm trying not to think about what happened to Hope. And what about your sister?"

"She is unconscious. I don't know if she manage to wake up from this dream."

"She rescued all of us. She must wake up, because I must thank her for it."

"When we meet our brothers and sisters, they will be able to help her. The father told us a lot of wonderful stories about their magic."

"Nothing good came from our journey so far."

"We made a mistake taking you. But Lorella had high hopes for you..."

"How come?"

"She believed that you were a stigmatic. She believed that your will would lead this world to changes."

"Perhaps you will explain me what it is all about. She called me by such a name several times and I must admit that I didn't like it very much."

"Our father taught us much about this land, your world and the relation between them. He told us legends about the person, whose sacrifice was supposed to break the curse put by Queen Mab on our family of dark elves. This person was supposed to have a knowledge of the future, her advice was supposed to lead to victory over the manor house ruling the Land of Eternal Twilight, and her blood flowing from stigmas on hands was supposed to free our world from the evil with which it is interconnected from the time immemorial. In the legend, it was also said that this person is supposed to be born from the man from the Earth and the Faerie resident, but Lorella seemed to forget about this."

"I'm not a saint, don't put too much hope in me. I'm a girl lost in the unknown world whp probably lost the best friend."

"More than a friend?" Loranir butted in.

"More than a friend." Jessica summed up.

"I don't know if it comfort you, but remember that Hope saved us. That's true that my sister moved us into the safe place, but Hope's courage gave us time and tipped the scales to our side. For a moment, but this moment let us survive. And now come back to your friends, because are at each other's throats."

"Yes, Nichol and Ben are heard even from here."

Jessica walked away from the long-haired man.

"Come out. I know that you're observing me." Loranir said with an undertone.

"I looked at you because I didn't want you to hurt her." X-23 replied looming from the darkness of forest.

"Why would I do it? We lost two people from the team. Worsening the relation between us would reduce our chances of the victory."

"We could stay there. Together we would be able to defeat them." X-23replied.

"No. You think this way, because you have never dealt with that kind of opponents. We would be able to defeat the horde of undead warriors. You with your cold steel in hands and feet, and me with the coldest frost that I would be able to create. But we can't fight with Matilda and for her helper. Even Owena's sword and the magic of my poor sister wouldn't match with theirs power."

"But another meeting with them is only a matter of time. We must be ready and think out a way to defeat them. You're the most experienced at the fight, like me. Together we can prepare something against them."

"We must find my brothers in the darkness as soon as possible. It is our only chance. If what my father told me is a true, these dark forests create for my brothers and sisters a powerful magic, equal to Matilda's power."

"I don't like it, our escape here. Don't you think that it could be witch's plan? She had a contact with Jessica, perhaps she still controls her? Perhaps it's Mab's way to destroy your people? Perhaps she don't care about Megan Gwynn at all?"

"Too many questions and too many of them are remaining unanswered."

"Quiet!"Laura shouted, finishing the conversation with the man.

"Somebody is here!" She added looking all around.

"I can see nobody..." Loranir was surprised. He turned around, carefully looking at thickets.

"They are hiding from an eyesight, but I smell them. They're here and they are trying to surround us." The girl quickly came to long-haired man.

"When I tell you, freeze the place which I will show you."

"Ok. But there is nothing. Matilda couldn't reach here as quickly."

"It's not Matilda. Other smell. Living, not deathly such as her undead hunters."

They both went quiet. They tried to notice opponents which the girl noticed. They tried to hear their steps amongst grass covering the forest clearing. In a vain. Mysterious intruders were completely invisible for the senses different than the olfaction of Laura Kinney.

"Now! There is somebody!" X-23 shouted, pointing at bushes behind the back of the man. The elf turned violently, producing whirling snowflakes around his hand. He hit the flora with the ice gale. The hoar frost revealed three slender, male silhouettes. Laura unsheathed claws in hands and feet. She attacked as quickly as she was able.

"Laura, wait..." Loranir tried to say something, but the girl didn't listen to him. She attacked first assailant destroying his armor. The companion of the felled man attacked Laura with the sword, but she blocked his attack with claws of both hands.

"Laura! Don't!" Loranir shouted.

"They are not who you are think they are!"

X-23, busy with the fight against the armed opponent, didn't listen to him. The long-haired elf took the stone on the string out of the pocket, decorated with the symbol in a language unknown on the Earth. He raised it above his head filling it with the energy of the ice magic. The symbol started phosphorescing with a blue lighting. One of men attacked Laura with a sword, forcing her to move back. In the same moment, two assailants and the one who was earlier felled by Laura, revealed their true appearance. Three of them were similar to Loranir, they had a long hair of the dark color and pointed ears. They were dressed in dark clothes resembling leather amours, and one of them had two tracks of Laura's claws visible on the breast.

"Stop fighting with each other! I am one of you! I arrived here with a very important mission." Loranir said coming closer to the representatives of his race.

"I ask for the protection for me and my companions." He announced putting the hand on breast. Raven-black haired elves came to him and responded with the same gesture.

"I welcome you, my brother. We accept you to our community, because the glitter of your jewel of the birth is real and free from the false light of Queen Mab. You will find shelter among us as long as you will desire it, you and all your companions."

Last of elves got up from the earth, performed the same gesture as his brothers, but after a moment he left them approaching X-23. He raised both hands above the head, and magic cuffs gleaming with portentous, purple glitter appeared on hands and legs of the girl. Laura struggled with embarrassment for a moment, but surrendered to the strong magic. She was thrown to knees.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Loranir became nervous. The ice gale danced around his hand.

"Your promise concerned all my companions!"

The black-haired elf came up to him showing tracks of claws on his uniform.

"But not somebody who broke the ban on the fight with a cold metal! She must be punished!" He said looking at Laura's face full of anger.

"And if you don't accept our law, the same penalty will meet you!" He added. Loranir thought for a brief lapse.

"Well. You can take her." He finally said.

"I knew that you were sensible and a blood of our common ancestors is flowing in your veins. All your travelling companions will be treated as guests on our manor house." The man pulled Laura's chain, forcing her to get up from the earth.

"Wait a minute. I want to tell her something." Loranir stopped him. He approached the girl.

"I promise you that I will help you." He announced with an undertone. X-23 didn't answer him. She didn't even want to look him in the eyes. Two elves who earlier had fought with mutant girl accompanied her into the forest thicket. The last of the three stayed with Loranir.

"Lead to your group." He announced gladly. Long-haired man didn't say a word, moving ahead.

Hope woke up again surrounded by the darkness of the night and black branches of trees growing around. Her senses were working properly, she also felt stronger. Unfortunately, wounds on her body also ached her more. The girl cautiously sat down in order to try to get up. She made a success with an effort, but assuming the vertical position brought her surprising relief. She looked around herself trying to find some path or other element of the landscape which would suggest her which way to go, but in a vain. Forest space around her was homogeneous and isotropic. Hope remembered words of elves about getting lost in the magic place and turning aside from the outlined path. Fear controlled her emotions. She still could not take the astral travel. She decided to walk straight ahead, and took a few steps. She walked a few meters, but the landscape around her didn't change. Every square meter of the forest was similar to the previous one. Hope quickened the pace, she started running. Her heart beat very firmly and she was tired more than usually. She didn't give up, since she wanted to leave the forest very much. It appeared to her, she was going round in circles. She thought that she was making circles still travelling around the same place. A moment of distraction was enough for the girl to stumble over the root and fell down, hitting the tree with the face. She clutched the nose, and her fingers became marked with a blood. Hope leaned against the trunk, buried her face in her hands and started crying.

Queen Mab was walking in the throne room expecting the news from the messenger. A man with a green hair turned up at her chamber, dressed in the blue shirt and trousers. He bowed before his queen.

"Do you have information which I want so much?" The woman asked.

"Yes, my queen. I am carrying words which will be music to your ears."

"Talk faster, because I cannot wait."

"Matilda attacked the group that threatens you, my queen."

"Were they killed?"

"No, my lady. They managed to escape."

"What? And this is supposed to be music to my ears?" Queen became nervous.

"My lady, it is not an end. The group had to retreat into dark forests. They are farther from you, my queen, than where they were after crossing the Gate of Eternal Dusk. However, the group for which you wait, is coming closer. They are already inside border of our wonderful capital city. Soon, they will pay you a visit."

"I forgive you for irritating me." The queen replied. The messenger bowed before her low.

"We must prepare the palace for our guests. We must remember that the girl is the future of our wonderful world."

"Of course, my lady." The servant replied again nodding to the queen.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

The group protecting Megan Gwynn slowly came at the border of the Eternal Twilight Land's capital city. The girl was walking a few steps ahead of her friends, ashamed of what she had wanted to do when she had been enchanted by forest nymphs. She lacked courage even to look at Mark, her father or Shan, she didn't try to speak with them. DJ also couldn't talk to the girl, not panicking simultaneously. Megan's father and two of his old acquaintances were the only ones who weren't surprised by strange event. Each of them remembered very well what the magic land could do to the mind of a young person. They saw it many years before.

Pixie reached the top of the hill covered with grass. She stopped, looking at the view stretching out before her eyes. The extensive plain shimmered with lights from lamplights and houses built along the paveed route leading directly to the gates of the walled palace. In the distance, one could see high towers ascending above the horizon.

"Nice view, don't you think?" Geralt asked stopping by the girl. Megan at first was confused by his presence, then she spoke to him the first time since the incident in the forest of large mushrooms.

"Yes, this place seems so calm. As if I was in the very centre of a fairy tale."

"Fairy tales, the real fairy tales can be really dark." Will said eavesdropping on the conversation.

"The most important is that we managed to come here without problems." Ian added gladly. Megan looked at him angrily.

"Without bigger problems." Ian corrected himself.

"We will finally be between people again." Shan said.

"Perhaps they will finally forget about what happened and will start to behave normally again." She added looking at her two students.

"If I were you I would stay away from these people. Maybe we shouldn't talk about them like about people." Will interrupted the conversation again.

"You don't have to repeat us how we're supposed to behave again." Shan replied.

"I must. Otherwise you will make such a nonsense as those two."

"Will. Stop!" Ian shouted seeing that his acquaintance tried to provoke mutant girl. Geralt asked everyone to go up closer.

"I don't want us to arouse the curiosity before our arrival in the Mab's palace. Therefore now I will cast the spell on you. For beings from this world you will look like ones of them."

"Won't they detect that we're using magic?" Shan asked.

"No. They are usually using charms for the change of an appearance. The hypocrisy is universal in this world."

In the same time on walls surrounding the palace of Queen Mab, Orin, the elf with golden hair looked through richly ornamented telescope. He smiled seeing that a young mutant which he loved to hate came near to the city.

"You are here boy. Why are you so sad? Probably you need somebody to comfort you?" He talked to himself rubbing his golden prosthesis of the hand.

"Orin, do not waste time watching nature." He heard familiar voice.

"Queen!" He quickly left the device, nodding to his queen.

"The entire court is busy with the welcoming party in honour of my daughter! Your help will also be worth its weight in gold!" The woman said. When the elf passed near the queen in order to come back to the interior of the palace, she stopped him.

"Matilda's messenger told me that her army had managed to chase intruders away to Border Forest.

"It is a wonderful message! They will never find the return road!"

"The witch also said there had been representatives of the Damned among them. If they find their co-brothers hiding in gulfs of the forest, they can impel them to assume the more aggresive attitude towards us."

"And will he let it? Will he let them provoke the war with our Kingdom?"

"Until the Ritual of Blood, my bonds with the other world won't be fully broken. I can be replaced by somebody more associated with this land, and he will have to agree on it."

"And risk the interrupt of flow of our gifts?"

"He cannot break the old laws established by somebody much more powerful than him."

"Queen, I will do everything in my power not to let them get to our palace before you complete your ritual. And what about her defenders, the ones which are travelling with her?"

"I have my man among them."

"The wisdom of yours cannot be desribed by a poetry, my Queen. Thanks to you our world will exist forever." Orin bowed before his queen again.

"Can I ask you about something my Queen?"

"Of course, Orin."

"Don't you pity what is supposed to happen? She is your real daughter..."

"Orin, she was born only in order to perform the ritual."

The queen went down the stairs into her private chambers, leaving the elf alone.

The group led by Geralt reached the municipal gates. Two moustachioed men with pointed ears, dressed in noisily colour dresses, came close to them, blocking the gate.

"Who you are an why are you going to our city?" One of them asked. Geralt smiled, simultaneously pleased that the spell worked, and guards didn't gain suspicions towards them.

"We are itinerant musicians from Nahel'shire. We came to entertain the Queen with our songs, dance and the music."

"The fesitval that Mab is preparing will probably be greater than all previous ones! Musicians arrive every few minutes. Welcome! Victuals and drinks are for your pleasure!" The man guarding the gate turned away, making room for the squad. Tylwyth Teg's main city was on the other side of city walls. Houses built on two sides of the street were colorful. Each of them was decorated with other patterns that emphasized character of the family living in it. The fountain in the shape of a woman with long, curly hair, keeping the jug, from which water with brightly emerald colour spilt, stood in the central square. A few young elves, men and women, dressed in white robes were sitting around the fountain. Colourful birds with long tails strolled around them. A few strides farther, a group of tall beings with blue skin and hair as white as snow talked. A bard playing some lively melody on the pipe was sitting under one of white houses.

"Look Shan!" Megan said pointing at women selling fruits. All of them had colourful wings, similar to the ones belonging to the girl. Their eyes also resembled Pixie's eyes. At that very moment, Traveller appeared by Geralt's side, still in the form of a coyote. Then, he changed his shape, becoming a tall young man with a long, auburn hair and slender face.

"At last I can assume the more natural shape." He said.

"Don't forget that we aren't staying here. I still need you and you're coming back with me to the Earth." Geralt replied.

"Yes, but until we are within the city walls you have no power above me. Goodbye!" The man replied changing his shape again. This time he became a bird of prey. In this form, he flew and disappeared between buildings.

"One day he will pay me for all this mockery!" Geralt said.

"We are almost there!" He added pointing at the gate leading to the inner part of the city, where the castle of Queen Mab and her manor house were located.

"Let us do it." Ian turned to his daughter. Will approached guards guarding the entrance to the palace. They were two identical looking men with golden hair and pointed ears. Both of them were holding gilded spears.

"I don't like them. They look like this pal who attacked us at airport." Mark whispered to Shan so that the other group members didn't hear him.

"Calmly Mark, all of them are similar to each other." The girl answered.

"I hope."

"What are you discussing?! We came here from remote Nahel'shire not just to chat under the gate! The queen is waiting for us!" Will shouted pointing at opening gates to the palace. When everyone went behind walls, and two guards closed the gate, it turned out that surroundings around Mab's castle was more densely populated than the outside part of the city. One could see tens of fair-haired elves and girls with wings of a butterfly keeping them company, everyone busy with preparations for some very important celebrations. Every fragment of the wall was decorated with flowers, and colourful birds were walking about the courtyard. A few women were busy with preparing ornaments of fruits of bizarre shapes, groups of musicians practised play on magic instruments, and dancers prepared for their performances.

"They have some kind of holiday." Megan commented.

"Everything that happens here is good for the never-ending party." Geralt replied. At one point, all people stopped talking and bowed towards the stairs on which the Queen of the Lands of Eternal Dusk and her helper keeping stood. The short man with white beard looked at the assembled company and introduced them to his queen.

My Lady, the group of musicians from Nahel'shire. They arrived in order to entertain you with the most exotic music." The Queen looked at the bearded man with a mocking look.

"Oh by beloved Arhitak, you are more and more blind in your old years." The woman waved the hand removing the charm of the illusion from Megan's companions.

"Damn!" Geralt became nervous.

"You still use wrong words. You haven't changed a bit." The Queen said approaching the team.

"What happened? Did they detect us?" Megan asked.

"No. I knew whom you were since you crossed the gates of my city. I waited for you. Since the old prophetess predicted the arrival of my dearest daughter, I knew that this day would come soon. Therefore I prepared the welcome party for her."

Megan looked around around herself.

"That's all for us?"

"For you, Megan. Only for you." Mab answered gladly.

In the same time, the second team of guests of the World of Eternal Twilight travelled across caves inhabited by the tribe of dark elves. Caves were dark, forged in a dark rock. Magic blue flames burning on walls were an the only lights brightening their darkness up. The team was divided by guards defending underground complex. Laura was taken by two warriors in direction unknown to other, while Lorella, still in very bad shape, was carried to shamans knowing a lot about medical arts. Owena decided to accompany her. Other members of the team and Loranir which promised to protect them, went to guest chambers in order to prepare to the meeting with leaders of the tribe living in the darkness. Soon, they were in a big chamber full of crystals of different shapes, which could serve as chairs.

"Are we their prisoners now?" Ben asked looking as the entry to the cave was covered with a magic barrier.

"They are very distrustful. Their magic cannot check minds of beings not born in this world to test their intentions, the same as they did with me. You must win their trust in a traditional way."

"How long will it take? We must search for Hope as soon as possible! She is alone in such a place!" Nicholas added.

"I understand what you feel very well. My sister is dying beacouse of the same reason! But we cannot act too rashly. We must show them that we don't have any bad intentions against them."

"Loranir is right. There is more of them than us. And we don't know what they are able to. We need their help in order to fight with forces of the witch." Jessica Vale joined in the conversation.

"Jessica. Do you know what you are talking about? It's about Hope!" Nicholas still wasn't pleased with the idea of passive waiting.

"I won't help her how when I get lost in the enchanted forest!" Jessica replied clenching her fists with an anger.

"And what about X-23? Where did they take her?" Ben asked Loranir.

"I promise you that I will get her out of trouble. I swear." The long-haired man answered looking at guards standing behind the magic barrier.

"But now you must forgive me. I must find my sister and learn what is going on with her." He announced heading for the exit.

"What are we doing?" Nicholas asked.

"Nothing. We will wait. Unless you want to fight with everyone of them."

"Jessica, do you feel something? Had you some visions, glimmers of the future?" Ben turned to the girl.

"No. But I will try meditation. Maybe if I hush the mind up the way Wolverine taught me at one time... perhaps I will manage to learn something about Hope, or about Megan, Mark and Shan."

Loranir went to interior corridors of the cave system, searching for the place in which his sister fought for her life. Feeling use of the powerful magic, he headed for one of branches of the cave. Two long-haired men barred his way.

"You are not allowed to enter there. Only people having a direct permission from our archmagus can look inside chambers of secrets. Return to your companions."

"My sister is there! I have a right to learn what happened to her?"

"If you get the permission from the archmagus, we will let you in. Strangers aren't allowed to watch our biggest secrets."

"Strangers? Don't you remember that I have a jewel of the birth? Did you forget that my begun here?"

"Loranir! Leave them alone! They are only performing their duties." Owena said appearing from behind the back of guards.

"Did you let the man to go there, and I cannot go?" Loranir was surprised very much.

"She had a direct permission of the archmagus, it is he who brought her here." The one of guards replied.

"Loranir. Let us walk from here." Owena touched arm of the friend, simultaneously telling him to go to more public parts of the underground stronghold.

"What is happening with her?" The long-haired man asked.

"She is in a very bad shape. Her physical wounds were healed easily by smaller healing spells, but the damage to her soul can turn out to be irrepairable. This undead wizard hurt her with something that is as murderous to her spirit that a grenade explosion is to the body.

"Is she dying?"

"No. At least not yet. But she is balancing on the border between the life and the death. Wizards are trying to reconstruct her psyche, but they guarantee nothing. Even if their operation will be succesfull, Lorella perhaps will not be the same person."

Loranir clenched fists.

"The cursed witch will answer for what she did!" He said being full of anger.

"Now we have more important task to do. We must notify dark Teg Tylwyth council of what we learnt as soon as possible. If the girl is in Mab's hand, we have very little time." Owena announced.

"Calm down, it is difficult for me also. After all Lorella is equally important to me." She added after a moment, seeing eyes of the long-haired man full of pain. She smiled.

"I remembered the moment when I saw you the first time. The father brought two children home, both with dark eyes about pointed ears. He announced that I had to treat you like brother and sister, as if you were his own children."

"I remember that night, my sister." The elf answered. The blonde wiped tears from her eyes.

"Lorella will be fine. I'm sure about it." She said. She cuddled up to the man and then started crying again.

"Prepare the feast for all friends of my daughter. And don't dissapoint me! The princess of the Land of Eternal Twilight has returned from a long exile! The entire land is supposed to fill up with a joy!" Queen Mab shouted. A few of her subordinates sped up preparations for the great feast in honour of Megan.

"Megan, you should put on something much more suitable for the party." She said directing one of her powerful charms at young mutant. Clothes worn by the girl underwent a transformation into a long, green dress, similar to the one belonging to her mother.

"And you, my old beloved!" Mab put the charm on Ian. Clothes of the man changed into a blue dress, the same as worn by high-born of the magic city.

"I can see that the queen forgave you everything." Geralt said, seeing unusual change of his acquaintances.

"I invite you to my chamber. It will be our first, private family meeting." The queen added.

"Will we let them go Shan?" Mark asked.

"We have no choice." The girl replied.

"Calm down, a plenty of attractions is prepared also for you. I know something about it, because I have already experienced it." Will announced approaching two mutants.

"Mab, I arrived here from Megan, I need your help." Ian wanted to tell the truth about the purpose of his visit in Tylwyth Teg's world.

"You will tell me everything in my chamber. Let me enjoy the sigh of my daughter. She is beautiful, even without an spell of illusion cast on the body. Eyes, ears and these beautiful wings. One can see, that she was born in my kingdom." Mab replied. She encouraged Ian and Megan to enter the interior of the palace.

"Don't stand here like pillars of salt! Find some entertainment for yourselves! Play!" Geralt instructed Shan and Mark. Will acted according to his advice and found the place for himself among young elves with long, curly, bright hair.

Loranir was sitting on a decorated chair in the middle of a round chamber. Owena was by him, holding her sword, as the symbol of connection with the magic land. A little bit farther, almost by the wall of the room, Jessica, Ben and Nicholas were sitting. Opposite the man there was a bench, on which the elders of dark elves were waiting for a report. Dark Tylwyth Teg didn't use the charm of the illusion and therefore it was possible to guess their true age. Men and women were old, but in spite of it their faces were still beautiful. Long hair, even completely white, didn't lose former brilliance. Three men and two women listened carefully to the story of strangers. Loranir showed birth's jewel which confirmed the assembled company in the belief, that he really was a changelling who managed to come back to the place of his creation. One of board members began the conversation.

"You had a great luck. Matilda's spells are really powefull..." He said.

"We apologise that we didn't react more quickly." The other member of council of elders added.

"Our magic isn't the same as in the past. Even sending information to your father..." He pointed at Owena. "... comes to us with a greater difficulty."

"Sending the changelling cost us quite a lot. After the information transfer we lost contact with two spies from Mab's palace. We must assume that they were detected and annihilated by the magic guard of the queen."

"Therefore we must discuss our participation in your mission." The old elf scratched himself his beard.

"You gave us this mission! " Loranir became nervous.

"It is you who sent us to the Earth as babies with heads full of incomprehensible information! "

"Calm." Owena whispered.

"I didn't say that we wouldn't help you. I expressed only a need for discussion. You are still so young and very impetuous..." Old Tylwyth Teg person replied gladly.

"Please wait a moment and when we reach an agreement..."

"Wait a minute! There is still one very important case in which you must assist us!" Jessica got up from a chair. She made a step in the direction of the bench of the council of elders. One of armed dark elves barred her way.

"Let her say." The woman sitting closest the wall ordered. She pointed her finger with a golden signet ring at the guard.

"Thank you. And I apologise that I spoke without permission." Jessica said.

"During the attack of Matilda, we lost our friend. She was kidnapped tby one of undead and taken away deep into the forest. I ask for help to find her. I know that we alone won't manage to force our way through the magics of that place.

"You are very wise, girl. Neither you nor any other person from your world canforce the way through the illusion of this cursed wild forest. What.." The old woman watched Jessica. After a moment she got up and approached her. She rested her hands on her forehead, closed her eyes and started whispering something incomprehensible.

"Matilda... Matilda is here..." She announced terrified.

"In my story I recalled about the attack by the witch." Owena interjected the conversation.

"Yes... but I didn't sense her presence... until now."

"Child! You must go to the Chamber of Secrets as soon as possible. We must check, what the witch did to your mind." The woman called other board member, the bearded wizard.

"Erlan, take care of this poor girl!" She asked. The old sorcerer smiled, asking Jessica to leave with him. Ben rose from his chair.

"Are you sure that you want to go with him?" He asked.

"I want him to repair my head as soon as possible. I have no visions, I feel anxiety all the time. Now I already know that witch did it." The girl replied.

"Let us finish today's meeting. Let us confer on the fate of Megan Gwynn." The oldest of board member said. When he geared up for the walkout, Loranir spoke again.

"There is an important case which you must take care of as soon as possible." He advised. The leader of dark elves sat down on the chair. He gave the sign to the rest so that they didn't move.

"And what is it?" He asked.

"During the first meeting with your scouts in dark forest, one of us was imprisoned by you and took away to the dungeon."

"I know nothing about it..." The old man replied. Long-haired elf in blue robes, who stood close by, approached the old man and whispered something to his ear. The leader of the Council got up.

"She had cold metal! She isn't your companion! Now she is a convicted criminal who must be punished according to our law!" The old person angered.

"Didn't the extraordinary situation in which we were cause that you should look at her misdeed differently?"

"A law is a law! If she broke one of the biggest bans, she must pay for it!"

"Don't you understand that she is somebody completely strange and doesn't know laws established in this land? How can you punish her only because she tried to defend me? She did what she had been taught to!"

"And what if somebody committed the murder in the world in which you were brought up and excused himself that he hadn't known that it was forbidden there? Should he also be set free?"

Loranir clenched fists, and not having more arguments, sat down on the chair. Owena looked at him sadly. Ben and Nicholas looked at cold members of elven council with a hate.

"Let us not outstay their welcome." Owena said.

"Let me see her." The long-haired man asked nodding before oldtimers.

Hope woke up in the forest plunged in the darkness, coolness and dampness. She sat down on the wet earth leaning against the fat trunk of the old tree. She examined her hands full of scratches and bruises, knees scraped off to blood and dirty, worn out clothes.

"Jessica." She thought getting up. The battle against the army of warriors commanded by the witch was the last thing she remembered. She recalled the way in which she stopped the pack of astral wolves. She smiled being pleased that she could stop such dangerous opponents at least for a moment. She was anxious for the life of her friends, but she tried to think that they managed to defeat Matilda's warriors. She knew that she would have to somehow get in touch with them, to find them. Simultaneously she realized that she had been in the place which weas perhaps the place of no return. She moved ahead. She hoped that this time she would manage to find the footpath leading to the exit from the forest enchanted with black magic. When she walked a few steps, forcing her way through the forest tangle, she noticed a strange shape in the distance. Silhouette of some animal, with a body phosphorescing with blue glow on the blackness of trees. Frightened, and at the same time interested with strange phenomenon, she decided to go up closer. It appeared to her that one of astral wolves had tracked her, and it could mean that Matilda's pursuit was closer. Were her friends also in the vicinity? The girl hide behind the tree in order to examine the spectral being from a safe distance. It was not an astral wolf, but an apparition in a shape of the horse. Hope smiled. The ghost looked at her with eyes as black as the darkness of the outer space, and later moved ahead penetrating through trees lasting on his road. Trance thought that the stranger had established contact with her and wanted her to go after him. She hesitated, because she remembered about dangers of the World of Everlasting Twilight, but her alternative was eternal wandering through the maze of enchanted trees.

One of dark Tylwyth Teg warriors who earlier came across Loranir and X-23, walked with Lorella's brother down a steep stairway to the underground. It was getting colder and colder, darker and more wet with every next step. Strange cylindrical worms with black skin hissed from walls and the ceiling. Feeling threatened, Loranir generated the ice shield around his hand.

"Calml. If you don't provoke them, they won't attack. They are perfect for the production of the poisoned weapon." Elven guide replied. Soon they both reached one of the deepest levels of the stronghold of rebels, where prisons were located. The man opened ones of the huge doors visible on the corridor.

"I want to talk with her myself." Loranir said.

"Of course. But remember that if you try something, which you should not do, I will be obliged to kill both of you." The dark elf scared him.

"I want to talk with her."

" Enter." The guard ordered. Loranir crossed threshold of the dark room. He took his jewel of birth out of the pocket so that its glitter lightened darkness up and he noticed Laura at the same time. The girl was sitting on a stone bench behind bars of old, strong wood additionally surrounded by spells of invulnerability."

"Wasn't one door enough for them?" The man thought.

"How are you feeling?" He asked coming up to grating.

"They didn't hurt me. I ate nothing, but it isn't so bad. My eyes already got used to the darkness and the light from your jewel is dazzling me a bit."

"I'm sorry." Loranir reduced brilliance of his crystal.

"What is going on upstairs?" The girl asked.

"Jessica was taken by the enchantress, because she still carries Matilda's in her head."

"And your sister?"

"She is striding on the border of life and death and seems to be passing on the other side with every moment."

"I am sorry." Laura rose from the bench coming closer to grating of her cell.

"Do you have a plan of defeating the witch? I had time to think, we can talk..."

"I didn't manage to convince them to release you." The man said.

"They want to judge you according to their law." He added. Laura came back to the bench.

"But I won't sit down, before I find something that could help you. They must have some library with books of laws here. I will find something, I promise..."

"Help Megan." Laura replied briefly.

"I will come back here, Laura." The man announced leaving the cell.

"Does she like being in our thresholds?" Elf warrior keeping him company asked.

"Promise me that you will speak to me never again." Loranir gave him a mean look and quickened the pace towards stairs to upper levels of the underground stronghold.

The old Tylwyth Teg was sitting in the dark writing something on paper lightened up by the blueish fire of the magic lamp. His gaze shifted between sheets of paper and the opened book with yellowed pages. The man wrote observations from the meeting with the changelling returning from the world of people. He described his every reaction, every gesture, tried to get the influence of bringing up in the world not marked by elven magic. His experiment showed that the emigration about which he had thought since the time immemorial could turn out to be possible. He smiled at the thought that he could solve a problem of the curse which Mab threw on his people in the completely peacefull way. They called him a coward who proposed something what was not honorable, but simultaneously they were afraid to make a decision to begin the fight against the woman who made them exiles. His plan was simple and didn't require to interfere with Mab's plans, or to help her daughter. The elf closed the old book, and thenput it on the shelf full of volumes similar to it.

Loranir came back from dungeons of the stronghold, then he met Owena.

"What happened to her?" The girl asked guessing where the long-haired man was.

"She is shut in the cell as a common criminal. She is patient, but she doesn't trust me anymore."

"Are you surprised?"

"No. I am also disappointed in my family. In stories of our father they were gods e. Now I can see that they are simply a gang of cowards."

"Don't judge them so severely. You know what alliance Mab signed with her own blood."

"Yes, but my family is the same backwater and constrained by ancient bans as the manor house of the Queen. Only difference is in the way of dressing and attachment to different architecture." Loranir replied angrily.

"Perhaps we will use it to help Laura? I could see that there was a library with texts from times when Fearie and the Earth were one land somewhere in the vicinity. Perhaps we will manage to find some custom, thanks to which we will rescue Laura from their court and the sentence?"

The man smiled for the first time since his sister was struck with Matilda's charm.

"Let us walk there as soon as possible."

In the same time, the old woman from Dark Tylwyth Teg's Council meditated by the root of sacred tree, when she felt someone's presence. She smiled getting up off the floor.

"Come out of hiding. I know that you came here with many questions."

Match came out from behind the door.

"You are an unusual being. Being on fire and simultaneously not being burnt. I didn't know that there were such unusual residents on the Earth."

"Why Megan?" The boy asked.

"Why is Megan so important for Queen Mab? Why is the Queen trying to kill her? She is no threat to her. Before murderers from Fearie appeared, Megan had not a clue that this place existed. If she didn't attack her, nobody of us would know about the existence of this world."

"I can see that your heart is full of strong emotions. Sit down here and let the root of the wood of treelight calm you."

Ben hesitated, but then he joined to the old woman.

Megan, Ian and Queen Mab were sitting in the fine room of the palace of the Kingdom of Everlasting Twilight. The girl looked all around, admiring walls and the ceiling decorated into paintings portraying mythological heroes of the land and scenes from their adventures. Mab looked at the girl smiling. Thanks to her illusion magic, her expressed emotions seemed sincere and nobody could guess what she really thought about her daughter.

"I didn't know that dark Tylwyth Teg were able to send ruthless warriors to the Earth in order to take your life. If I knew that something like that could happen I would destroy their dark forest and drove them out to the end of reality a long time ago. I thought that you would be safe in the place deprived of the magic."

Megan looked at her father, and he immediately grew more serious.

"Don't be funny, Mab. When Megan was conceived you wanted to destroy her with me, only because I opposed to you."

"You deprived Megan of the possibility of eternal life without any concerns!"

"I freed her from the trap which would destroy her free will!"

Megan observed her parents quarrelling in the first meeting. She smiled.

"I's not important! I told you a moment ago I wanted your magic to remove all influences of this land from Megan, I want you to clean fragments of her soul of any connections to this place. Will said it was the only way for murderers to stop hunting her. Is it true Mab? Can you do it for us? Can you do it for her?"

The queen became sad. She rose from the couch and approached the door to the balcony of the palace.

"I can do it. But I want Megan to feel how it is to be one of Tylwyth Teg at least for one night. I want Megan to feel unity joining all Fairl Folk." The woman opened balcony doors. Warm air shook her emerald hair.

"Megan, come with me, please." She said. The girl looked at the father.

"Go. Don't be afraid." Ian told her. Pixie quickly came to the palace verandah. She looked at ambulant people all over the courtyard, involved in preparations for the party in her honour. Her eyes glimpsed flying girls with wings phosphorescing in the darkness.

The woman touched Megan and embraced her gently.

" Let me give you a gift."

Megan became nervous. She remembered Will's words about not taking gifts from nybody. She didn't protest. She could not, because emotions took away her speech, or Mab cast some spell on her. The queen spread hands out, closed her eyes and recited words of the ancient text. In the distance, behind municipal walls, the space started changing, strange plants appeared and then turned the meadow into the garden at the lightning pace. Trees, bushes and flowers of fanciful shapes surrounded the city like the third layer of city walls, cutting the palace off from the rest of the land. Some of plants lighted with brilliance, therefore the darkness of the night was lightened up by thousands of colours, like neon lights from the center of the crowded metropolis.

"It is my gift for you, Megan. Garden of Delight."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Aged elven wizard Elrand Lamruil touched Jessica's head, having previously led her into meditative trance. His bony hands were breaking magic web around the body and soul of the girl, intricately woven by the old witch. Stick decorated with a jewel, stuck in the special hole in the floor, lightened the room up with a blue glitter.

"The spideress caught you firmly." He whispered moving fingers on Preview's cheeks.

"She tried bound something in your interior. But her magic is weak in our stronghold. I will destroy her spells." The oldtimer made a fast move of his hand. He detonated the crystal stuck on his magic cane, and entire room immediately became dark.

"Is everything all right?" He asked.

"Yes..." Jessica replied opening her eyes.

"I feel... a vision is coming." She added. She fell down on her knees and touched head. In the same moment, the images, which could not come to her earlier because of Matilda's seal, turned up at her mind. Jessica thought that she was running through thick forest, stumbling on roots sticking out from the ground every couple of minutes. Her every next step was more and more difficult for her, and the air around became hotter and thicker. At some point, the girl ran out straight from the forest to the seashore of lava and fire sea on which pitch-black ships sailed. One of them made its way to the beach and demonic monsters got out of it. Jessica could see them attacking her friends whom she earlier didn't notice. When she looked at the biggest of ships, she noticed that the man with black hair stood on its deck, and by him, there was Megan. Preview tried to shout something to her, but the inhuman screams of demons deafened her every word out. The face of the man became red, and two horns appeared on his head. The devil cut Megan's throat with one efficient movement of the hand. The blood of the girl fell down on burning waves of lava. Jessica had another vision, this time showing the Earth on which she was brought up, bathed in the rain of blood.

"What's going on?" She heard the grey-haired wizard, as soon as her consciusness came back to normal world.

"I had a vision... concerning the future and the past of this world... this are my abilities..." She whispered leaning against the wall.

"I don't understand entirely what it was about, but one thing is certain. Megan Gwynn was in it."

"Tell me about it. It may be very important to us." The old man asked. He was very concerned about things he was going to learn soon.

Match was sitting near the old elf woman in a silence, waiting for her story. The lack of woman's reaction started to anger him. He got up off the floor, then went to the other end of the room. When Merlara looked at him, he asked:

"I really want to learn why my friend and the member of my team became victim of the attack."

"I will tell you this story. But only when your companion will also join us."

"My companion?" Ben was surprised. He came up to the door and opened it. As it turned out Nicholas was sitting behind the door.

"Wolfcub? What are you doing here?"

"I'm looking after you. It's obvious." Nick replied.

"Get inside. This woman promised to tell us what it all means."

"Ok." The shaggy mutant said unwillingly and then sit near Merlara. Ben quickly joined it.

"I am pleased that we are together. I do not tolerate eavesdropping at my door. We don't have any secrets here. Lies and illusions are a domain of Mab and her subjects." Elven woman said.

"A long time ago, when the British Isles was a land lying at the end of the known world, a long way from the center of the civilization, Annwn realm and terrestrial states existed in one reality. Life of people in small towns and villages and Tylwyth Teg's life in woody cities and on hills went on simultaneously, crossing each other in liminal zones between the wildness and the civilization from time to time. It was a time of legendary kings and heroes fighting with horrifying monsters. It was a time in which earth's young men married elven girls, and the powerful magic permeated even the smallest stone of our connected lands. This age of magic, as any other, was supposed to pass soon. The civilization spread like illness, creating cities deeper and deeper in the interior of the liminal zone, reaching lands belonging to Fearie from time immemorial. Influences from outside our islands appeared along with new waves of imigrants. Druidic groves coexisting with the uncontrollable Nature disappeared, giving up to Crosses built by followers of Dying God. Residents of islands broke off their bond with the Nature and our race. They more often regarded us as something evil, they were afraid of us, they tried to avoid us, they hated us, they sent their exorcists after us. Our world was going to pass irretrievably. The help came from the unexpected side. The Annwn king entered into an alliance with powers which appeared on our islands with Europeans. Thanks to the power of beings calling themselves the Infernal Princes, all Tylwyth Teg and the entire magic surrounding them were moved from the Earth to the other world which is now called the Hell. Thanks to the magic of our wizards and demons from that place, managed to create the substitute for the ancient land Annwn, the world of Eternal Dusk in which we are now. Soon, our saviours decided to demand their payment. They demanded delivering them slaves, the strongest men and the most beautiful women from our tribes. A great war broke out between Tylwyth Teg, as well as between Princes, because not each of them had the same plans towards newly created world. And something unpredictable happened. Our king disappeared somewhere, and Mab took his place, the woman who wasn't even born Tylwyth Teg. She was a girl from Earth, who fell in love with one of our noble elves. Thanks to him she got an ability to use the magic and immortality. Mab did something that nobody expected, nobody of us knows also how she got the power to do it. She cast a spell on all Tylwyth of Teg, the charm of the illusion, a false bliss. Her manor house was made, and everyone who crossed its thresholds forgot what Annwn really was and what price was paid for creating it. Every year demons take young ones to the infernal gulfs and nobody from Mab's surrounding knows about it, living happily and playing all the time. Luckily, a small group of Tylwyth Teg, our ancestors was protected from Mab's spell by one of Princes of the Hell. Thanks to him, we managed to take shelter in this magic place. I don't know why he did it, perhaps his sole reason was to prevent so that his rival got too big power. Mab was afraid to chase us, since she knew that the demon had been on our side, therefore she agreed to grant us the part of the land and a freedom from the charm of illusion. In the same time, our Council appointed Guards of the Liminal Zone whom became the first Changelling sent to the Earth. His job was to recruit people to guard border between our two worlds so that our two lands will join never again. Earth's merging with the Infernal land would mean the extermination of your reality. Now one of guards is a person from the family of your friend.

"Is that why was Megan was attacked? Because Mab is afraid that Megan will also become a guard?"

"Not entirely. The role of Megan can turn out to be much bigger. Megan didn't tell you, because she didn't know about it, but she comes from this place. Megan was conceived in our land and is a daughter of the human and Mab. When her father found his way to Annwn with two of other travellers, people from the Mab's court could taste what means to live in a world deprived of the charm of the illusion again. Many of them started asking, look from other point of view at us their cousins living in the forest.

"Your people already told us about it. But now it is much more shocking for me, after I learnt whom really the queen of this world was. Why does her own mother want to kill her? It's stupid."

"We aren't sure. Mab wanted her daughter to become her successor and live in the Fearie consumed by the spell of illusion. Her father decided to save her soul. Mab wanted to kill both him and the daughter in a moment of weakness, because she was furious that somebody stolen her property. Knowing that the girl could become one of the best liminal guards because of her extraordinary origin, we helped her father to escape from Annwn. I was the one who stopped the snowy squall sent by Mab's old witch. When our spies told that Mab sent murderers to the Earth years later, we knew that she might do something against Megan. Even though the person from her family isn't an active hunter now, she still is contact with somebody who provides us information about the girl. Therefore we knew that Megan posses extraordinary abilities. This man protected her from her birth, and then it became a job of his daughter and her two friends.

"Owena, Lorella and Loranir?" Nick asked.

"Yes. They didn't managed to fulfil their objective."

"But why Mab wants to kill Megan?" Ben asked again.

"We are not sure. However we have a theory. Mab tries to gain much greater power, because she is afraid that our real king can return and try to unite our two tribes. Mab fears that she will lose all her influences, her subjects and the magic thanks to which she isn't growing old. A legend says, if somebody who became Fearie due to the magic, breaks with his or her humanity, he or she can become the real Tylwyth Teg. The manslaughter of the child born to from the man can fulfil such a role. Then her power would consolidate and even the return of the king wouldn't get the throne back from her."

Lamruil wizard entered into the meditative chamber of the old elf woman. He was excited.

"Why are you here, Elrand?" The woman asked.

"A Vision. A Vision of the friend of these two young men!" He shouted out.

"Jessica's vision?" Ben asked.

"Is everything all right with her?" Nick added.

"Yes, yes... the spell that Matylda cast on her was entangled, but I managed to remove it from her heart. Something else is worrying me. Our theory concerning the attempt of the manslaughter of Megan Gwynn by her mother can be false. Jessica Vale had a vision from which it was clearly seen that one of Infernal Princes can be responsible for everything! Demons want to trigger the war in our world!"

Mark was walking in a ballroom inside the Mab's palace. He looked all around, admiring the splendour inside the room. Bright walls were embellished with icons describing scenes from the mythology and the history of Annwn world, and three chandiliers, compound of magic crystal filling the room with light, hung from the ceiling. Mark saw many dancing Tylwyth Teg couples. The boy noticed dancing male and female elves, as well as a few pairs of two men. In the second room, as large as the ballroom, there was a long table covered with a tablecloth on which the most elaborate dishes, prepared by cooks from the entire Annwn who came to the palace for the party celebrating an arrival of the real daughter of the Queen. In the crowd, Mark noticed Will in the company of women, Shan talking to Megan's father and Geralt, admiring baked paradise bird. Mark could not find the only person whom he needed the most, his girlfriend. When finally he found her amongst elves and other magic beings, he waved her from a distance and came off to her side. Ginger mutant girl she caught sight of him, she turned and quickly came up to a stairwell. Shan noticed the entire incident.

"Perhaps I should react somehow? They haven't talk to each other since the adventure under mushrooms. It's about time they stop behaving as if they did something wrong."

"Leave them alone. Mark already cannot withstand without her. When they will be in more secluded spot then they will explain everything to each other."

"Maybe you're right."

"The dancing company bores and annoys me terribly. I'm going to light a cigarette. Today's night a garden materialised in front of us. I must enjoy eyes with the view of the exotic flora." Geralt announced leaving the girl.

Mark found Megan standing on the balcony of the palace, with her eyes fixed on the colourful garden, shining in the darkness, the gift she got from her real mother. When the boy came up to her, she turned around intending to go to some different place.

"Megan, wait!" Mark shouted. The girl stopped and turned away her head.

"Leave me alone. Why did you come here?" She asked.

"Because we haven't spoken for many hours. Why are you avoiding me?"

"After what happened..., after everyone saw us... when I embarrased you."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know. You know what I'm talking about. The thing that happened in the magic circle of wood nymphs."

"Are you avoiding me because something cast a spell on you? It's completely idiotic!"

"They took the total control over me. I didn't know what I was doing, they controlled every movement of my body, every gesture... I could not stop when they ordered me to undress and to came closer to you!" Megan started crying.

"They violated my privacy, stripped me from..." Mark approached her. He tried to touch her, but she didn't let him.

"You understand nothing! It isn't about that I undressed before you, before Shan, my own father and two strangers. Think what would be if these nymphs ordered me to kill you. If they ordered me to throttle you with hallucinogenic dust?! I'm dangerous for you and you shuld better stay away from me."

"Megan, what are you talking about? You cannot blame yourself for things others forced you to do. Their magic was strange, powerful, something that none of us was able to understand. I was more conscious than you and I remember what happened. Even Geralt wasn't able to tear their circle and stop their spells. Only Will was able to chase them away, by killing one of them. Don't you remember our conversation recently? It is me, whom you should be afraid of. I killed a man! I ripped him to shreds. You only showed me your bare butt! Who is more dangerous?"

Megan wiped the tears away and started crying.

"I remember. Recently, our roles were reversed. It could be funny, if it wasn't so terrifying." DJ hugged Megan who didn't resist this time.

"This place influenced us very much. But please be strong. Soon it will be over and we will come back to the school together."

"And we will forget about water nymphs and the blonde man whom you ripped to shreds."

"I promise."

Mark embraced Megan and kissed her. After two minutes of the mutual closeness, the couple felt that somebody had watched them closely.

"She is here." The girl whispered.

"Who?"

"Mab, my mother."

As it turned out, the Queen of the Kingdom of Eternal Dusk appeared on the balcony. The woman walked at a slow pace, and her emerald hair blew in the breeze as waves of the ocean.

"Megan. Your first night in Fearie comes to the end. Come me. I have a next gift for you."

"But..." Megan replied unsteadily.

"It's all right. You will come back to him before daybreak."

"Go Megan. I will be here waiting for you. And I promis that I won't dance with an elve or a nymph."

Hope reached a forest clearing and a lake. The large moon hung above tops of trees pouring its silver glow over surroundings, and its reflection waved on the surface of water whipped by a delicate puff of a wind. The girl stopped, when the spectral horse went on the lake, as if it was a dry land. The etheric animal turned away its head in her direction and when it noticed that it was being observed, it submerged in the deeps of the lake. Hope came closer the lake. She came to the banks, because she wanted to become convinced whether it was a lake with real water. She wetted the leg.

"What's going on! Where are you?" She asked aloud.

"He is safe. He came back to his true house. But uou look as if you were very far from your homeland." A delicate voice reached the girl from behind. When she turned around, she noticed that there was an estate built in a clearing. Man with long, black hair dressed in the dark dress of the Annwn's aristocracy, stood on a terrace looking at young mutant girl.

"You must rest, because it can be seen that your journey was very exhausting for you." He added.

"You... are you dark Tylwyth Teg?" Hope asked reminding words of elves and Owena.

"Tylwyth Teg? I must resemble one of them." The man replied with a surprise.

"Come in. You will find the bathroom at the end of the corridor. Cleanse your wounds, because you don't known what got in them when you went through the thicket."

The girl made two steps, the she hesitated and stopped.

"Are you afraid of me? In that case I am going to my studio and I will shut myself away in it. You do not have to be afraid that I will do something for you." The long-haired man disappeared in the darkness hidden behind thresholds of his estate. Hope unsteadily moved towards the door.

The council of dark elves gathered again at the request of Loranir and Owena. Grey haired leader of the stronghold, Grathgor were present at the meeting. Young mutants also appeared in order to support their elfven friends.

"We gathered here, apart from the appointed time of the debate, in order to listen to your request, our brother in the darkness. Therefore, be so kind to us and present your proposal quickly."

"My request regards Laura Kinney, Earth's girl who was unlawfully shut in your dungeons, after touching one of our brothers with a cold metal."

"Don't put our patience to the test! Our decision for this Earthling is irreversible." Grathgor announced angrily.

"I understand well that obeying old laws in our community is important. I and Owena spent last night reading books of the law at the library. We know about the custom which was practised in this land before its complete disjunction with the Earth. If the person committed the worst offence not being conscious of it, he or she can be forgiven in one way. Therefore I ask the Highest Council not to deny the right this young, earthly woman for redeeming her sin by performing labors commissioned her by the Council!"

All board members looked at each other in a surprise. The elf lady smiled.

"I can see that your shared adventure joined you with a strong bond." She said. Grathgor sighed.

"Such a law exists and we must follow it. But she is stranger, she doesn't know this place. She will get lost in the dark forest and won't find the road. Won't it be worse than the penalty which our court can sentence her?" He asked.

"No, when she will have a guide." Loranir announced.

"We cannot send anybody with her. When Matilda and her undead army are in the vicinity of our forest, and the queen Mab is planning something bad in the capital city, all warriors must stay in the stronghold."

"I will go with her. I will be a guide for her." Loranir replied without a moment of thought.

"You were brought up on the Earth. You don't know our land." The elven magus was sceptical.

"I was born and brought up on the Earth, but each night I dreamt of this land. Each night I walked paths of its forests, I swam in its streams, I ran over meadows full of magic herbs. The curse which you put on me was very effective."

After a moment of thought, Grathgor spoke.

"Well. Let it be. I will ask one of guards to lead you to dungeons. Meanwhile, we will think about labors which she could carry out for us. Split up." The leader said closing the meeting. When Loranir passed by the bench on which mutants sat, Match got up and stopped him.

"Thank you." He said.

"I could not act differently. She was thrown into the dungeon because of me." Loranir replied. Owena smiled to Match.

Hope Abbot was sitting on a white chair in the bathroom of the mysterius man's estate. She took off her entire uniform and other pieces of clothing, leaving only pants on. Water poured into the crystalline bathtub filling the room with characteristic noise and a hot steam. The girl cleaned all scratches and bruises with magic medicines from the medicine cabinet of the long-haired man, surprised that she was able to recognize them intuitively, even if she never dealt with them earlier. Wounds hurt her horribly. She clenched her teeth, but after a moment she noticed that the process of healing had sped up and mixtures brought her relief. When the bathtub was full of water, Hope took her pants off and entered the bathtub. She was surprised that she took the invitation of a strange individual. She broke the rule of trusting nobody in the world of Eternal Twilight. The girl closed her eyes and relaxed. At some point, she heard a melody, quiet sounds of the grand piano coming from deep inside the estate. She got up from the bathtub and having wrapped up with a dressing gown, she left the bathroom. She walked along the corridor towards the music which became louder and louder. Finally, she came to a big, dark room. Here, there was only a black grand piano and the homeowner played some melody on it. When the man sensed that Hope was observing him, he stopped playing and turned in her direction.

"I can see that you healed your wounds." He said.

"I dressed them. They won't heal up so quickly. I feel less pain after bathing." Hope told.

"Did you like it? My music?" The long-haired man asked.

"Yes. It was so... soothing..."

"You are very sensitive. It is a good feature of the woman. What's your name?"

"Hope. Hope Abbot."

"Hope..." The man fell into a pensive mood.

"Now you should tell me who you are."

"I am not revealing my name to bystanders, but I will make an exception for somebody who likes my music. I am Prince Sallos."

"Sallos..." Hope whispered and after a moment surprise and fear expression appeared on her face.

" I read somewhere about somebody with that name... it is a name... of a devil!"

The man smiled, getting up from the chair.

"I can see you are not only sensitive, you have also a big knowledge. Despite what they wrote about me, I don't consider myself a demon. Would a demon be so hospitable?"

"You really are this Sallos! I found my way to the estate of a devil!"

"Calm down. I promised you that I would do nothing to you. Come back to the bathtub, if it helps you to cool down. My magic will heat the water up if is too cold."

"No. I won't be panicking." Hope sat down on the second chair, standing by the grand piano.

"Somehow you look to me asa devil. I saw his pictures." Hope was supposed to convince herself that the meeting with ademon is absurdity, and the stranger is cheating her. But after the recent week, when she was in the land of elves, fought with a huge frog, the witch and the army of undead, the meeting with a devil was very probable.

"Is something wrong in my appearance?" Sallos asked politely.

"You should have a beard. And ride on a crocodile."

"The beard in the world of clean-shaven men? And as for the crocodile..." Sallos smiled, and a green light appeared behind his back. A large head of the crocodile appeared. The girl shouted.

"Okay! I already understand!" The girl said preparing for the fight. Sallos sent the reptile to the dimension from which the one arrived.

"Now you reveal me a secret, which I cannot comprehend. What a terrestrial girl is doing in the darkest part of Annwn?"

Jessica, Ben, Nickolas and Owena with Loranir and Laura, freed from dungeons, were called to the council of Dark Elves elders. Jessica's vision and its interpretation by the wizard caused that the master of the forest tribe had to make a decision as soon as possible.

"The gift of your friend opened our eyes to matters about which we forgot." Grathgor started.

"Mab turned out to be bolder than we thought and her act can lead to a war which will destroy our entire land. Therefore, we decided to act. You are strangers from the other world and therefore the ban on crossing borders doen't concern you. I ask you to go to Mab's palace and rescue your friend and our land." The old elf smiled.

"Owena was taught by one of the best guards, so she should find a way to the border without a problem". He added.

"Of course. My magic will help to find the capital city and the palace of the Queen. But in how are we supposed to get to the city? Matilda and her undead army may still be in the front of your forest. There is neither Lorela nor Hope with us. We won't manage to defeat her demons for the second time."

"You do not have to worry about Matilda, girl. The witch violated laws coming here with her Wild Hunt. We have the right to defend ourselves on our soil. We will set off with a group of my warriors. I will be commanding them personally." Grathgor announced.

"When the clash with the witch come, you will be able to go to the Mab's palace, and I and my faithful companions will fight with the Wild Hunt."

"Thank you" Owena said.

"I'm sorry..." Jessica butted in.

"And what with Hope? Should we not look for her?" She asked.

"And now we must take up other matter of major importance." Grathgor spoke again. He rose from the bench and approached Loranir and X-23 standing by him.

"Your friend asked to assign three labors which will let you avoid penalty for the felony which you committed." He said.

"And you, Loranir, you decided to be a guide for her, so you must keep her company." He added.

"I assign you three labors, the first: bring us the Lunar Flower, the second: recover our property stolen by the crazy witch Narbeth, the third: learn what fate met our spies inside Mab Queen's palace. If you do them all, the girl will be pardoned by us." The elf finished the conversation. He gave the sign with a hand to all board members so that they could vacate the room.

"We must prepare for the military campaign." He announced.

Laura turned to Loranir.

"I don't like it. Thank you that you got me out of dungeon, but don't you think he have no time to hunt treasure? We should stand at the side of our friends and free Megan from hands of her mother."

"At first I also thought that these labors would be something completely archaic and unimportant, but now I can see that they really want to help us. A Lunar flower is a herb which can heal my sister, and spies disappeared in Mab's palace, in the place to which we must all go. I don't understand only the meanings of the second task, but perhaps the crazy witch stole something that will help us to win?"

"If say so... let us start our mission as soon as possible."

Geralt was walking in the Garden of Delight admiring the beauty of the flora created by the magic gesture of the Annwn world's queen. He stood up by the tree, which gleaming roots stuck out above ground and branches were pink leaves. Flowers of the tree secreted pink, afloat pollen all around. In the distance, there were bushes growing with shining fruits whispering elven poetry, and there were meadows around them with colourful flowers phosphorescing in the darkness of the starry night. The man lighted a cigarette. He turned in the direction of city walls and the palace listening closely to sounds of the music and parties taking place inside. He smiled.

"I can see that you recall our first visit in this place." Will spoke coming up to Geralt, not being by him noticed earlier.

"Yes... then it was us who were the main attraction of the party. Everyone inside were interested in us."

"We had all their women with blue eyes, golden hair, wings and boobs." Will added looking at walls behind which fireworks exploded.

"Now the younger generation took our place." Geralt said.

"Let them experience pleasures this world offers, Ian's daughter, her friends, even their teacher who hates you."

"She should relax in particular. When she enjoys a pleasure with some young elf she will cease to be so hostile to me." Geralt laughed.

"I regret it a bit..." He added.

"What?"

"We will be in Annwn only one more night. I'm pleased that Mab will take from Megan the spell that links her with this land and the girl will be able to come back to normal life, and we won't have to hunt for Channgelings anymore, but... I feel sadness, that we see this world for the last time. I thought even about freeing the Traveller. Let him go his own way..."

"You can always stay here. Mab will lead Megan and the rest of us to the exit. Her magic will be enough to protect them from any danger. But you should enjoy the party instead of musing. It is a night of play, wine, food and sex, rather than the philosophy!"

Geralt was still cloudy. He finished to smoke cigarette, threw it on the grass and trod it down with a sole of the shoe."

"Will... if we see this place for the last time... could you tell me what you saw in Forbidden Forest?" He asked taking the second cigarette out.

Will approached him. He looked him in the eyes with an icy eyesight.

"Do you really want to hear it?" He asked.

"Yes." Geralt replied. Will lighted him a cigarette with a magic spark, then walked away.

"Will wasn't himself that night." He said using third person.

"The view of a naked arsehole of a forest nymph confused him completely. Not paying heed to bans and orders he ran after her into the very heart of forest of the darkness. Even though the cursed nymph made fun of him and escaped as soon as he encroached the forest, he didn't give up. He searched for her everywhere, plunging deeper and deeper into the tangle. In the end, he found a way to the other side of the forest..."

Geralt listened to the man with an interest, looking at madness raging in his eyes. The story about that event seemed to arouse in him something dangerous.

"There was a sea... sea of lava and fire! Black rocks on the beach burnt feet. And right by the shore... a ship floated. How could the ship, wooden one, sail on that inferno and not been burnt? There were black monsters, red one also, dressed in identical armours, armed with swords and axes... with wings like bats'. They guarded something... or rather somebody? They led chained Tylwyth Teg. The women, prettiest which were born in the land, a few effeminate men also... for the King of Hell, the gift of Queen Mab as a sign of good relations between the realms. And in this moment I saw Will, I had to murder him, because I didn't want anybody to learn what really happened on the other side of the forest barrier. I killed him with an ease, even when he tried to defend me with weak spells. I killed him and I took his skin! And along with it his entire personality and memories!"

Will's face started to change. His eyes became red, and the skin assumed a dark color. His fingers grew longer, forming talons.

"Who are you?!" Geralt shouted out, surprised. He formed the protective pentagram in one hand, and reached for the handgun.

"You should be more vigilant!" The demon said. Magic daggers shot out from behind the fanciful tree. They flew towards the man in a raincoat with a huge speed, hitting straight in his back. Geralt didn't manage to turn around, all daggers squeezed into his body. He dropped the handgun, and the pentagram around his hand dissolved into thin air. He fell down on grass. Will approached him.

"Will's memories gave me the new mission in my life. I could stop being a sailor on slave ship. I could finally offer the commander of my legion a gift thanks to which he will be the first amongst Infernal Lords... the gate, thanks to which border between Fearie and the Earth will disappear,and armies of my Lord will be able to appear on the blue planet again."

"You bastard... Tylwyth Teg's rebellion is one great lie..." Geralt whispered with a mouth full of blood.

"These misfits are too cowardly to move a finger for defence of their own businesses. They prefer to sit concealed in the forest and philosophize... or send Changellings so that they could learn to live in the other world."

"The changellings which I helped you to kill all those years... they were innocent..." Geralt clenched fists. He didn't have enough strength even to raise the head.

"The stupidity is a deadly sin. But I didn't lie to you in one thing. There will be a war between Mab manor house and dark Tylwyth Teg. Thanks to this war my army will be marching on the Earth. Everything went according to my plan. Mab believed the lie about her daughter which I told her. She sent murderers, whose only objective was to cause that I, you and Ian came to this land again. Marcon's pupils and their new companions also came to Annwn. Mab freed Matilda, and she will soon take into the fight all dark elves. When Annwn will plunge into the fire, we will use the gate to your native world. Forgive me Geralt, but the ceremony will start soon, and I must be by the side of my queen."

The demon walked away from the dying wizard, assuming the figure of his old friend again.

Jessica, Match, Wolfcub, Owena and group of elven warriors commanded by wizard Lamruil and the leader Grathgor arrived at the meadow directly in the front of the dark forest. It turned out that old witch Matilda and her army of undead kings were ready to defend the only road leading to Annwn's capital city. Astral wolves and infernal hounds smelt Tylwyth Teg out. They geared up for the attack, but the witch calmed them, pulling their invisible, magic leashes.

"Calm down! You are supposed to obey my orders." The witch squawked, simultaneously looking at resting warriors and the hooded magus.

"Greetings Grathgor, the most wonderful of residents of the dark forest. Did you want to join my Wild Hunt in this beautiful night?" She asked. Grathgor came out a few strides ahead of the row compound of his warriors.

"Matilda! You broke one of the most important bans of a treaty between Infernal Domain, and Annw, the land of Eternal Twilight. You entered lands belonging to my companions without a warning, you attacked and hurt our guests! Whose order you acted upon, you cursed witch?"

"I listen to no orders! I wanted to hunt, so I organised my own pack! I hunted nobody important down, I broke none of provisions of the treaty!" The old woman said. Jessica clenched fists.

"Did Mab let you off the leash?" Lamruil was surprised.

"You and your people unlawfully deprived me of my acquisitions!" She screamed pointing at young mutants, thenstopped her eyesight on Jessica.

"And you will come back to me and no magic will help you!" She added, looking at the girl's eyes.

"Matylda, take your companions of Wild Hunt and come back to your own part of lands. Let our guests travel across safely roads of Annwn." The leader of dark elves ordered. The witch laughed.

"Great changes will come to our world very shortly. You and your people will lose the protection now the ancient treaty provides you. When Mab becomes a rightful queen of the entire Annwn, I will launch a hunt of every Dark Elf. There will be no forest thick enough and no mountain steep enough for you to take shelter from my infernal hounds!"

Grathgor turned to Owena.

"Remember not to get into the fight. Find your companion and help Megan Gwynn."

"I understand." The girl replied.

"I can see that I won't reach an agreement with you, infernal witch. Therefore I will exercise my right to self-defence of the land."

"Good. Your warriors will feel pain of wounds inflicted with enchanted cold steel!" Matilda hissed sticking the gnarled cane in the earth. All undead knights prepared for the attack. Spectral animals surrounded the witch, protecting her against the immediate physical attack. The team of dark elves was also ready for the struggle. Many of them presented their weapon, and a few created magical symbols around hands. The wizard Lamruil raised the golden cane with a jewel above his head, and Grathgor took the sword out the scabbard. Owena laso prepared her own magic sword, Match formed in fiery bullets in both hands. Matilda's hooded wizard exposed his face. As it turned out, he was Will revived by the black magic, the old friend of Ian and Geralt, murdered by the demon, after finding out the truth about the other side of the forbidden forest.

A rain of rose petals appeared around Mark. The boy was surprised at an unusual occurrence, but at first he thought, that it was new amusement prepared by the Queen. He quickly became convinced that he had been wrong. When all petals fell on the floor, Orin appeared before the young mutant. The blonde elf smiled to him coquettishly.

"You!" Mark shouted.

"You greeted me so harshly. And I tried to shower you with the most beautiful flowers." The man with a golden hair spoke.

"I killed you!" DJ didn't believe his eyes.

"Ah yes. We already had a small unpleasant meeting." Orin showed the prosthesis of the hand made of the pure gold.

"You hurt me boy, but I could not forget about you. Now, when this disgusting girl is with my Queen, we will be able to have a fun together."

"I will show you the play!" Mark created colourful bubbles in the air, demonstrations of the energy which he got listening elven songs from behind walls. Balls exploded in the vicinity of the man flooding him with a colourful sparks.

"Oh my! You too prepared something for me! Thank you!" Orin shouted. He made two blades covered with spikes and threw them at the boy. DJ escaped to the stairwell.

"Do you want to play hide and seek with me? Okay! Let us start the foreplay!" The elf announced joyfully, and then followed the boy. Mark ran to the courtyard of the castle, and later headed in the direction of the gate. Surroundings was crowded by different magic beings, celebrating the Queen's daughter arriving to the land. DJ could not find Shan, Megan's dad, or any of his friends, but he thought that the crowd could give him the upper hand in the escape from the crazy elf and a moment of time to think how to defend him.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Mortally wounded Geralt lay on the grass of the Garden of Earthly Delight which blades phosphoresced in the darkness. He lost a lot of blood, he didn't feel hands or legs, and his life was coming up to the end. Before the death, he was supposed to meet with the being who had been magically joined with him, when he had visited the world of the Eternal Twilight the first time.  
A small birdie landed by the head of the man. The traveller in the form of the animal eyed his former master in a silence. The man turned his head to him.

"Did you think that I wouldn't recignize you in this incarnation? Even in such a state I can sense when my servant appears by me. You came to be pleased with my death?" He asked.

The bird looked at him with black eyes and spoke with a human voice.

"I cannot be pleased, because my fate is unclear until we're bound by the oath. If you don't let me walk away before your death, I will cease to exist."

"Ha! You came to ask me to break the bound."

"No. I know that you wouldn't do it for free."

"And what you have to offer? Are you a miracle-worker who treats every wound?"

"No. As a matter of fact and I wouldn't help you because it isn't in my business. I was sitting on a tree and I was singing, when you talked to Will."

"You saw who he was? Could you hear the conversation?" Geralt was surprised.

"Yes. Everything, even the smallest detail."

"Didn't you warn me? You didn't stop the demon, although you could do it. I know, you don't have to answer. It wasn't in your business."

"Indeed."

- I will break the charm of connecting between two of us, I am swearing. I will do it, although stayed for me most probably perhaps from half an hour... I will do it if you find the administrator of this world and you tell him other Infernal Prince wants to disturb order between two worlds and to get what doesn't belong to him. You must repeat every detail for him from the monologue Villa, did you understand?

- Yes. I already spread my wings in order to fly to the retreat of this demon!

- Well. And now leave behind me alone, because I don't want to look at you in extremis.

Ptak rose up into the air, rolled three circles around the Geralta dying person and with the huge speed moved in the direction of dark forest so that meet with the Sallosem Prince and perform the last task which forever will separate him with the wizard started to hate.

"I will break the spell of bonding between the two of us, I swear. I will do it, although I now I won't last more than half an hour... I will do it if you find the governer of this world and tell him that other Infernal Prince wants to disturb order between two worlds and get what doesn't belong to him. You must repeat every detail of Will's monologue to him, did you understand?"

"Yes. I already spread my wings in order to fly to the retreat of this demon!"

"Well. And now leave me alone, because I don't want to look at you in the hour of my death."

The bird rose up into the air, flew three circles around dying Geralt and with moved in the direction of the dark forest to meet with Prince Sallos and perform the last task which will separate him with the hated wizard.

Mark Sheppard forced his way through dancing crowds gathered in the front of Queen Mab's palace. He wanted to find Shan and tell her about his horrifying discovery as soon as possible. He knew that if the crazy blonde man was somehow associated with Megan's mother, the girl was in great danger. The boy found the entry leading to the walls surrounding the castle. He hoped to come across Karma there, Megan's father or one of his friends. As it turned out, the place was more desolate than he supposed. At some point, DJ caught sight of the person with black hair standing close to the wall. When he went up closer, it turned out that it was Will.

"I found you finally! We must call everyone! Megan can be in a danger!"

"Really? Why do you think that she is?" The black-haired mage asked.

"This madman from the airfield is here! He lives, although I ripped him to shreds! He's here and he's hunting for us!"

"What madman?" Will still remained calm.

"He probably means me." The elf announced teleporting beside Willa. The cascade of rose petals whirled around his body.

"He is a part of our plan." Will said with an undertone.

"You... you... you're with them! You led us into the trap!" DJ shouted simultaneously putting discman's headhones on the ears. He turned the music on, and his fists shone of the collected energy.

"You want to play!" Orin laughed.

"Shut up!" DJ launched two energy bullets in the direction of men. Will smiled sneeringly. He raised the hand, surrounding himself with the barrier. Mark's bullets shattered on the shield, not harming the man.

"Pitiful." Will said. DJ ran in his direction. A white glow appeared around his hands again.

"Aren't you able to learn anything?" Will asked rhetorically.

When the young mutant tried to hit him, the demon parried the attack, getting hold of both his hands. Energy gathered in DJ's body hit the floor in a front of men. Dust rose up into the air. Orin moved away in a disgust, simultaneously covering the face. Will overpowered Mark, throwing him against the wall. The young mutant fell down, having lost the consciousness.

" I have no time for such play. Take him away, he is yours." The black-haired man turned to Orin. The elf smiled.

"Thanks." He disappeared with unconscious DJ, surrounded by the cloud of rose petals.

"Now I must get rid of Ian and this Vietnamese witch. Perhaps she will be putting a bit of resistance." Will said to himself.

Laura and Loranir went along the rocky path in depths of the forest inhabited by dark Tylwyth Teg. Ancient trees, worrying darkness, coolness and the damp surrounded them. Finding the lunar flower which was supposed to safe Lorella's life according to experts from the land of Eterlasting Twilight was their first task. During the walk, Loranir explained the girl everything he knew about the unusual plant. His father explained to him that this flower had bloomed only during the full moon, and it was possible to find it inside the well standing between the oldest trees of the forest. He also knew that this well had been an exceptional place and not deprived of a protection.

"I still think that I should be somewhere else now, fighting with my companions." Laura started the conversation after minutes of quiet walk.

"Or to search for Hope..."

"Don't start again, after all I tried to explain you why my brothers sent us here."

"Yes. And I understand what you wanted to explain to me. But I think that it's the pointless waste of time and something completely illogical from a strategic point of view. I must do something maybe senseless, while I would be more useful in the squad attacking the palace of Queen Mab."

"I noticed it earlier. You behave like a soldier. As if you were created to the continuous fight. You are vigilant and ready for the attack by the opponent all the time."

"We're in the world full of dangerous and hostile beings. How am I supposed to behave?"

"You were like this before we crossed the gate in the lake. Even then when you defended the stigmatic against Mab's murderess."

"Don't call her this name. She doesn't like it very much. You're perceptive. You can see the real nature of the person."

"Yes?"

"Yes. You are right. I was really created for the fight. Literally. But I wasn't created to be a soldier. I was created to be a killing machine, living robot carrying orders of its superiors out."

"It is very interesting."

"I was born only order to become a perfect murderer. I was conceived in the unnatural way, in the laboratory, with the use of the newest technology. I was trained in all forms of fight and killing the entire childhood. It also..."

Laura showed two adamantium claws in the right hand. Loranir moved away from them.

"I also got this metal, which caused us problems, in the laboratory."

"I understand, but sheathe these claws. They aren't needed now."

"Ok." Laura retracted talons into the hand.

"If what you told me is true, then we have a lot in common. I also was born in the unnatural way. The changellings are not the real Tylwyth Teg. We are artificially created beings, given birth thanks to the magic. Our pupropse is to cross the border between worlds and serve the guardian of the Liminal Zone. Each of us is joined with the element in the purest form and thanks to that we receive the ability to use the magic of this element. I was connected with a water, with an ice..."

Loranir made the crystal of glistening ice around the hand.

"We are the artificial beings who do something that is contrary to our nature." He said. Laura smiled.

"Untrue. We are real. My new acquaintances made me aware that it was not important in how I got life, but how I will live it."

"We reached our destination." The long-haired man said stopping.

"Look, it's this well." He added. Laura looked in a direction he pointed and noticed the stone well covered with green moss. She came up to it and looked into its interior.

"It must be very deep, I cannot see the bottom." She shared her observation.

"And there is no rope or ladder. How will we go inside?" Loranir asked.

"Stones are stacked imprecisely and there are cracks between them." The girl unsheathed claws again, this time in both hands and feet.

"I will make my own ladder. And I will show you that these claws are used not only to kill." She smiled.

"Don't forget about the guardian."

"I see nothing, I can't hear and I don't smell anything. We will worry about him only when he appears. Now I must go downstairs and take the flower. And you wait for the guard.

"Right."

Laura climbed on the well and, using claws in hands and feet she started the go inside it. When she went down lower and lower, the space surrounding her became darker and colder. Additionally, sounds coming from the forest became distorted, as if they came from some bizarre, oneiric reality. Laura felt also the increased damp which meant that she moved closer to the bottom of the well. Finally, after a few minutes of the difficult walk down, the girl was near the surface of water. There was a total darkness around her and only a splattering of water in contact with her foot caused that she was sure of reaching her destination. She looked around, while her eyes got used to the darkness. There was water below her feet, and stones around her so no plant could grow in such an inhospitable place. X-23 knew that she had to search deeper. She filled her lungs with air, and dove in icy water of the well. It turned out that there was the destination of her travel, lying a few meters below on the bottom. It wasn't however an ordinary plant, she first thought, but lifeform created by the magic of the Eternal Twilight realm. It was a crystal flower which delicate glitter resembled the Moon, plunged in depths, rather than reflected in the waving sheet of water to which everyone was accustomed. Laura took the flower and returned to the surface. It turned out that glitter of the strange plant had increased, when the girl took it from water. The room was filled with a light and thanks to that X-23's walk up turned out to be much more pleasant than her walk down the well. After a few minutes, the girl was on the forest clearing. Loranir, seeing the glow of the Lunar Flower, quickly came up to the girl.

"You did it! You were there so long that I started to worry."

"It's really deep in there." The girl replied giving her find to the companion.

"Why are you giving it to me?"

"It's supposed to help your sister, is it? It's completely worthless to me."

" I cannot believe that the first task was so simple."

"Perhaps it hasn't ended yet." Laura said, simultaneously listening to something.

"Can you hear it?" She asked.

"No." The elf replied. But later he admitted:

"I can hear now. Sound of horse's hooves."

"Yes."

At the same moment, the knight mounting a black steed loomed into the view from behind the wall of trees. He was dressed in a black armour, and he was holding the ebony sword in the right hand. He wanted to defeat people who had stolen his treasure.

"Guardian of the well?" Laura asked.

"Yes. So it seems so." The elf announced. He made the ice blade in the hand. The girl unsheathed claws in hands.

"I'm ready." She announced smiling. The knight drove the horse to the gallop in order to get even with intruders as soon as possible.

"Don't let his swordtouch you." Loranir said to the girl.

"Do you have some plan?"

"Yes, when he falls off the horse, deprive him of the weapon."

When the warrior was very close, the elf used one of the most powerful spells he knew - the Blizzard. The stream of cold air and snow created by hands of the long-haired man hit not only in the knight and his riding horse, but also everything around: trees, grass and the road on which the person in the black armour moved. The horse stopped feeling great chills. He uttered a weepy neighing. The knight tried to force him to move, but without any success, since hooves of the animal got stuck in the expanding snowy cover. The irritated man dismounted the horse. The dark glow of his sword melted the ice cover which Loranir tried to made on him.

"Now! When he is confused!" The elf stopped creating a snowstorm, simultaneously moving aside so that the girl could attack freely. Laura moved to the knight and cut his hand holding the sword one move of the claws. There was no blood, only the black smoke emerged from inside his destroyed armour. X-23's surprise at the unusual view was enough for the warrior to gain the tactical advantage. He ran up to the girl and hit her with his hand. Laura was pushed away by his superhuman power and hit the tree.

"Laura!" Loranir shouted, seeing the event. He made a few ice daggers and shot them blindly towards the knight. He came to mutant girl very quickly in order to check the condition of her health.

"I'm ok." The girl tried to get up from the earth. The elf helped her and, after a moment, they both stood opposite the attacking opponent. The knight tried to hit. Laura and Loranir understood each other without words and dodged the blow jumping away in two opposite directions. X-23 tried to cut the black armour with her claw, but this time the opponent was prepared. He blocked her hand. Before the girl managed to free herself, he threw her against the earth. Loranir surprised the opponent from behind, trying to freeze the back of the knight with another crash of the snowstorm. Unfortunately, the guardian of the well found a remedy against his spell. The black smoke which got out of the cut hand, worked on the snow in the same way as the sword, turning it into water. The warrior grabbed Loranir's neck, raised him and hit him against the trunk of the old tree.

"Laura..." The man said. He touched the hand trying to strangle him and applied the freezing spell. The entire armour of the black knight was frozen, effectively immobilizing him. The elf fell down to the ground, trying to catch his breath.

"Is Everything all right?" The girl asked.

"Laura... he will free himself... now..."

The girl unsheathed claws.

"Head... we can only defeat him this way. Head..." Loranir added. X-23 understood what he meant. She gathered speed and decapitated the knight with one efficient move of claws. The black helmet fell down into the grass. When the girl approached it, it turned out that apart from the black smoke, it was completely empty inside.

"We struggled with an armour." She said throwing the helmet at the elf.

"It's not the end. We must somehow get rid of him, or else he will probably recover and will be chasing us."

"The well?" The girl asked.

"It seems all right."

They both moved the armour to the well, and threw it inside. Laura threw also the helmet and the glove into it.

"And the sword?" The elf asked.

"It can be useful to us. I will keep it."

"Ok." Loranir came up to the well and using the ice gale stamped it with a seal of ice.

"He should be locked." He announced pleased.

"Now what?" Laura asked.

"Next labor."

"Perhaps we should ride on him? Faster than walking." The girl suggested pointing at the dark horse standing close by.

"Good idea. He should listen to us because we defeated his master."

After the short horse travel, Laura and Loranir reached the hill under which the cave hermitage of elven witch Narbeth was located. A purple smoke was emerging from a hole in the rock, meaning that the woman was preparing her magic brews. Long-haired man told Laura to hide behind the hill, and then he joined her there. They both looked at the witch appearing over and over again in the entry to the cave. Narbeth had long, grey hair with grass and the weed woven into it. She wore the worn out dress which, at one time, was as equally elaborate as dresses worn by persons from Queen Mab's palace. Her face wasn't old, but her green eyes betrayed the tiredness of living in the world which had disappointed her centuries ago. The girl came out of hiding, unsheathed her claws.

"What are you doing?" The man asked.

"She is defenceless. Perhaps I will manage to neutralize her, without killing. If I am fast..."

"Wait. She is a witch, did you forgot? Do you remember what Matilda did to our team? This one here can turn out to be far worse."

"Matilda expected us. She attacked us with the entire army. This woman has no clue that we are here. The element of surprise is on our side."

"Wait a moment. I want to look at her." Loranir insisted, because something alarmed him in the crazy woman.

"Ok."

After short observation of Narbeth, the elf was sure that he hadn't made a mistake. He turned to Laura.

"You cannot attack her. At the beginning I thought that it was wrong, but now I'm sure. I will never forget what the father warned me against. She has the sceptre..."

"The Sceptre?"

"The Sceptre of the Disintegration. It is one of the most powerful weapons which was used against dragons that ruled expanses of this land at one time. If this sceptre could burn their hard skin, think what it will do with a delicate, women's skin."

"What other idea do you have?" Laura wasn't pleased with the inactivity.

"I will try to talk with her."

"What?"

"I will try to talk with her. I said clearly. We have something which she may want."

"What?"

"Hand the sword to me Laura."

The girl did what the man had asked her. Loranir came up to the rock and stuck the ebony blade of the guardian of the well into it.

"Go away from here and hide somewhere. When I get Narbeth here, you can sneak up to her house and look for something belonging to the Teg Tylwyth council."

"I understood." The girl replied. She walked away into thickets in order to disappear from the view of the witch. Loranir slowly went down the hill, approaching the household of the witch. Narbeth saw him, threw herbs, which she had gathered, on the ground and came up to the stranger. Her hand tightened on the sceptre.

"Greetings, venerable Lady." Loranir bowed before the woman.

"Who are you!?" Narbeth shouted, covering her face with the hand.

"I came, because I have something which can interest you, venerable woman." The man replied calmly.

The witch was silent for a moment, she wanted to come back to the retreat, but her curiosity won in the end.

"What such a little boy can have which I don't have?" She asked.

"During my journeys I defeated the black knight and I got his ebony blade. It is able to cut every material."

"Demonstrate!" Narbeth shouted again, covering her face with the hand.

"It is in the safe place, venerable woman. Behind this hill. It is stuck in a hard rock."

"I won't let myself to be deceived! You want to attack the poor, defensless woman!" The crazy witch screamed, turning away from the man.

"Venerable lady, I do not have a chance to defeat the weapon which you have." Loranir showed the sceptre hanging at the belt of the woman.

"Well. You know what to expect, when you betray my trust!" The woman laughed.

When Loranir and Narbeth walked away to the hill, Laura entered into the witch's cave. She looked around inspecting the room with her all senses. She felt a penetrating smell of herbs drying above and of the ones neing cooked in the black pot along with something which the girl didn't even want to imagine. She looked at walls covered with bizarre paintings, many of which showed the girl with rosy hair and wings of a butterfly. She observed shelves with old books, large jars with ingredients of magic brews and fabricated animals, mistakes of the nature. She quickly found the corridor hidden behind the green curtain, going to the deepest portion of the cave. Going down stairs cautiously, Laura reached the stone door. She looked around, noticing the stone ornament hanging by the door. Soon it turned out that the object fitted perfectly in the hole in a rock. The door opened with a loud crack. The girl entered the centre of the huge cave enveloped with white fog. She sensed danger, unsheathed claws preparing for the fight. A huge, reptilian head loomed into the view from the fog. The dragon came near to Laura, and his large, yellow eye came into a close contact with her green pupils.

In the same time Loranir took Narbeth to the place, where he left enchanted sword in the rock. The woman ran up to the find, walked around it, examining it all over.

"The magic of the black knight is in this sword, I feel it even without touching it." She announced.

"You told the truth!" She added.

"I wouldn't dare to cheat you, venerable woman." Loranir bowed before the witch again.

"Give it to me! Immediately!" Narbeth shouted hiding behind the rock in which the black sword was stuck.

"It is yours. I don't dare to touch your property."

Narbeth thought. She burst out laughing.

"You wanted to cheat me! Touching the sword is fatal, yes? You wanted to set a trap for me and steal my all treasure! Never!" Narbeth reached for the sceptre of the disintegration and pointed it at the long-haired elf.

"For the fraud, there is only death!" She screamed. Loranir sensed powerful magic gathering in the object. He was sure that he was going to die. At some point, everything became dark, as if the sky was covered by big, storm clouds. Narbeth raised her head, noticing in astonishment that her prisoner, huge dragon rose above her. Loranir caught sight of Laura sitting on his back. The reptile descended to the height, sufficing for Tylwyth Teg to mount it.

"Jump!" The girl shouted. Loranir jumped on the back of the beast.

"Where do you have him from?" He asked surprised.

"We looked for him. He was taken away from the Teg Tylwyth council and imprisoned. I freed him and he agreed to help us."

"You are remarkable. But don't celebrate too early. Look..."

Narbeth prepared to use the sceptre of disintegration.

"Swindlers! Thieves! I will kill you! You won't escape for me!" She screamed. The dragon rose higher, looked at the witch and spat a large fiery bullet at her. Soon the entire neighbourhood was flooded by raging flames. The flying reptile went up high above the forest.

"Do you think that he killed her?" Laura asked.

"I don't think so. She had a very powerful magic artefact. But now she is no longer our problem."

When leader of Dark Tylwyth Teg gave the order of the attack, things happened unusually quickly. The witch cast the spell of black flames at the group, but elven mage Lamruil made the protective shield around everyone. The shower of arrows from bows of warriors dashed off towards unndead kings, piercing their decaying bodies, taking slices of the meat away from their black bones. Two fireballs cast by Match hit group of Wild Hunts, setting fire to revived bodies of old heroes and smashing their riding horse compound of bones moved by the black magic. Two lightnings launched from hands of the old elf hit other unndead who tricked came close the group. One of warriors tried to retreat behind his companions, when Owena's sword reached him. The king of the zombies was cut intoto two halves, and the magic of the girl's weapon caused that he was not able to reconnect.

"Matilda, there are too many of them! Powerful beings from the Earth are helping them!"

"Calm down Will, I have everything under control!" The old woman looked at the subordinate, who was not appreciating her power, with a hateful eye. She clenched fists and uttered the inhuman shout, resembling squawking of some disgusting ugly bird. Astral wolves and infernal hounds raised ears and joined their whine to the scream of the witch. All spectral animals attacked. Infernal hounds spat fire and black smoke, cutting off two fighting groups from each other and effectively depriving elven archers of the visibility. In the same time, astral wolves jumped on a few Tylwyth Teg standing the closest. They sank their etheric teeth in their bodies and got down to eating their souls. Long-haired men froze, feeling panic attack and a pain, when fangs of spectral creatures cut their life lines across. Bodies of elves started growing old in a flash, when the psychic energy flowed from them to assailants. Their hair became grey, hands and legs thin, and bodies shrank at an alarming rate. Jessica watched with a terror young men turned to old dying people.

"We don't have a chance with them." Owena said. She moved the sword close to the face, trying to find calming in it.

"If Hope was here..." Jessica butted in.

"They eliminated her first. They guessed that only she could stop these monsters."

"They are killing our warriors!" The leader of dark Tylwyth Teg shouted seeing astral wolves devouring souls of his subordinates. The witch laughed with a squawking voice, and unndead kings prepared weapons in order to get even with the ones who were lucky not to get up to etheric teeth of spectres.

"Lamruil, we must do it! We won't win against her horde. Even extraordinary powers of our terrestrial companions and Owena's sword aren't any obstacle for them!"

"Consequences of releasing this wild beast can be tragic." The old man replied.

"You took the jewellery case, so you knew very well that you would have to open it." Grathgor replied.

"You know me too well, my lord." The elf said and slowly opened the lid of small chest which he had hung on the neck on the golden chain. The interior of the container glowed with a blue light. After a moment, a blue ball escaped from the jewellery case. The fight was stopped by an unusual occurrence. The witch waited for the effect of the new weapon of elven magus, while her wild beasts looked avidly at the mysterious glitter. The blue glow started transforming in different shapes, and then finally in became spectral boar.

"No." The witch squawked. The boar looked at everyone, its eyes glistened with a lunar light. After a moment, it moved ahead with a huge speed. All astral wolves and infernal hounds stopped attacking their targets and set off in pursuit of the magic animal as if they were hypnotized by it.

"Come back here! I'm ordering you! I am Lady of the Wild Hunt!" Matilda screamed raising the gnarled cane above her head. A few kings mounted their riding horses and also followed the new hunt. Only a few undead remained on the battlefield and among them, there was the wizard who, when alive, had been Will the friend of Geralt and Ian.

"I created this Wild Hunt! You must listen to me!" Matilda didn't hide her great anger.

"The Hunt always choose the best prey, Matilda!" Lamruil spoke moving ahead the row of decimated elven warriors.

"And can you give them the prey better than the Heavenly Boar?" He added.

"Let us end our skirmish. Attack!" The ruler of dark Tylwyth Teg gave the command to all elves who were still able to fight. After freeing the wild boar, their chances of the victory grew rapidly. The group of young mutants and Owena prepared the attack the closest standing opponents.

"No! Your mission is somewhere else." The wizard stopped them, simultaneously reciting words of the teleportation. The four of them were enveloped by the golden lighting and disappeared from the battlefield.

"What have you done!" The witch screamed pointing her cane at the magus.

"Old laws don't bind us anymore! Kill them all!" She added turning to Will.

In the same time Owena, Jessica, Ben and Nicholas appeared on the road leading to Queen Mab's palace. The castle of the queen and the entire city surrounding it were concealed behind the thick veil of trees, bushes and meadows of the Garden of Delight created by the magic of the queen. The strange light of plants from the garden started working on everyone in the hypnotizing way, as if it tried to invite them into the interior.

"Megan is there, in the palace." Ben announced.

"Behind this garden... I don't like this place" Nick interjected.

"Jessica, I'm also feeling strange looking at these lightings. I have never seen something similar. Do you have some vision associated with this place?" Owena asked looking at the sword. Unfortunately r her magic object didn't give the nature of the garden away.

"No. But I feel a strange calmness."

"Calmness?"

"As if something was in this place at one time and it was taken. Now only a hole of the total peace remains here."

"I don't like this." Owena commented.

"But we have no choice. Because we came as far as here, we should go further and help Megan as soon as possible." Ben added.

"Yeah... I don't know. I agree with Jessica, this place isn't normal." Nick said.

"We're going." Owena turned to Match.

"Standing here we gain nothing." She added.

"Megan, Mark and Shan... are in danger because of that place. We made a long way to help them, and some bushes are supposed to stop us now?" Ben announced.

"This place took away Hope..." Jessica said.

"And Lorella." Owena added.

"They all count on us. "Ben sumed up.

"We're going."

The four entered the area of the garden.

"What's this!" Jessica shouted terrified. She covered eyes with hands.

"I knew that it was a trap!" Wolfcub clenched fists.

"Bloody hell!" Ben swore.

"What are you talking about? Damn it, I also feel it! Something wants to enter my head!" Owena also became a victim of strange power. All minds were poured with white light which quietened their thoughts.

Sallos looked at Hope sitting by the grand piano in a chamber plunged in a partial darkness. His eyesight pierced through the girl, as if the demon tried to see the soul hidden in her. However it wasn't a look of hate.

"What you say doesn't have any sense. I am prone to acknowledge that you invented everything and you aren't a human woman, but young Tylwyth Teg who went to the forbidden zone and wanted to have fun at my cost. I am calm, but you should know that no demon will stand such an insult."

"I'm not Tylwyth Teg! Everything that I talked about is the truth. I arrived here with my team and the three about whom I told you, because my friend is in a danger. Her mother, Queen Mab is trying to kill her, because she thinks that thanks to that she will receive some power, control the world, I don't know and I don't care. It's enough that this queen sent the monster after us, and then the entire army of disgusting zombies and spectral dogs!"

"You are trying to cheat me. I can observe the palace of the Queen from here, because I am the governer of this Land. She would hide nothing from me! Even her spells of illusion aren't strong enough to be hide her from my eyesight. Come back to your court and don't bother me anymore!"

"Use your power to destroy my illusion, then you will be convinced that I'm telling the truth."

Sallos smiled.

"You are a wise woman." He said and looked at her face.

"You are telling the truth. You aren't Tylwyth Teg." He added.

"I said from the beginning that I wasn't lying. Please, help me. I don't know what happened to my friends, perhaps they no longer live. Help me rescue Megan."

"I am sorry, but I cannot do it. If Mab had plans towards her daughter and now decided to bring them into effect, she has the right to do it. She is allowed to steward her court the way she likes it. It was written in the treaty centuries old and became a foundation of peace between our worlds. My attempt of the interference in Mab's internal matters, could cause the reaction of some of other Infernal Princes. Believe me, you don't want it, because the majority of them isn't so nice as I."

Hope clenched fists. She got up from the chair.

"In that case I must deal with them alone. I only ask you to show me the road leading beyond this forest."

A knocking sound was heard in the dark room. The prince Sallos looked at the direction of the window decorated with stained glass made of material letting the small amount of light into the interior. He noticed the small shape moving behind the pane.

"A bird?" Hope asked.

"No... it is not a bird. He wants to tell us something." The demon said clenching his fist. In the same time, stained glass disappeared from the window, and the traveller in his bird's form could freely came in Sallos' retreat.

"I'm bringing the message, the last order given me by my master. I will finally be free, now after his death." He said looking at the black-haired man. Hope recognized the messanger.

"He... he is dead?" The girl was surprised, thinking about the recent meeting with Geralt and his messenger at the airport.

"Who are you? How do you know..." The bird asked, but after a moment he remembered everything.

"It was you! You broke my trail!"

"What is your message!? Say it and take the form more worthy of the guest of my palace!" Sallos broke the Hope's conversation with the Traveller.

"As you wish." The bird announced, and after a moment, he landed on the floor and changed into the man.

"My master ordered to hand over to you the truth about what is happening behind walls of Queen Mab's palace. One of Infernal Princes is planning to seize the power in the entire Land of Eternal Twilight. His plan will lead to the war of Mab manor house with Dark Tylwyth Teg, and then to opening the doors between the Hell, this land, and the Earth. The gate will be opened after making an offering from Queen Mab's daughter."

Hope paled hearing news of the messenger. Sallos clenched fists.

"Which Prince is so insolent?!" He shouted.

"I don't know, my lord. I was a witness of the conversation of the demon who serves him. The demon who took the skin of my master's old friend."

"How is it possible!? A moment ago I could see the palace in my ball! There peace prevails, the same as centuries ago."

"Mab cast a spell of the illusion on the palace. Powerful, because supported by the magic of the demon who betrayed you."

"I cannot allow for the change of the power of forces between me, and whoever is the traitor of our agreement." Sallos turned to Hope.

"It looks like that I have to help you to rescue your friend."

The majestic dragon with golden scales glided above the magic land. Loranir and Laura, sitting on his back, were pleased with an air trip, forgetting for a brief lapse about the seriousness of the situation in which their two different worlds were. The girl looked at green forests below, meadows and streams of the crystal-clear water cutting hills. She smiled touching smooth scales of the legendary reptile. Loranir was also in a very good humour. He found the lunar flower and handed it over to sorcerers from the forest stronghold which meant that his sister had a chance of the recuperation. He became the warrior of Dark Tylwyth Teh and found the friend in Laura, somebody whom he could trust apart from his own sister and Owena. The dragon flew higher and higher, almost touching the layer of pink clouds. Laura felt the touch on her back which quickly moved to her hips. She turned her head in the direction of Loranir.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"We're in other reality, but higher you go, the colder there is, like on the Earth. Do you want to freeze?"

"Frost won't hurt me. My wounds heal quickly."

"But you feel a pain, right?"

"Yes."

"Therefore let me cover you with the cape. My magic of frost will protect us from the cold."

Laura was silent for a moment, and after then she answered.

"Ok."

Loranir covered her with the cape, ensuring the warmth in ice-cold clouds of the Land of Eternal Twilight.

The dragon emerged from clouds right above the palace of Queen Mab. He rushed at the colourful castle like the eagle attacking the prey. Suddenly, he slowed down. Loranir felt his confusion and fear. Laura looked downwards noticing the colourful garden, which became a forest, surrounding Mab's palace.

"What's going on?" She asked, also feeling fear of the dragon.

"I don't know. Is he afraid to come closer to the palace? But why?"

"He is moving slower. Just as if was going to change the direction of the flight and escape."

"Yes. I will try to communicate with him. If he is afraid, let him escape. But we must get there." Loranir fell into a pensive mood. After a moment, he fell out of the trance and looked at the colourful garden.

"I think that I reached an agreement with him. When he approaches the garden, we will jump out."

"Ok." Laura replied agreeing on the action plan. The golden dragon beat its wings and lowered his flight height, so Laura and Loranir could safely get to the ground.

"Now." The elf said catching the girl's hand. Both jumped to the grassy hill below. The dragon flew in two circles around the meadow, and then lifted higher in order to leave the place which he feared. Laura and Loranir they fell down on grass, lost their balance and rolled over the slippery surface of the hillside. The dark elf ended up directly on the girl. He looked in silence at her face for a moment.

"If we weren't who we are..." He swept hair aside from her head, exposing green eyes.

"And if our worlds weren't in a danger..." He added. Laura caught his hand and moved its aside.

"They are in danger, therefore we cannot waste time." She said, trying to get up. Loranir stood looking at the castle.

"You are right. Laura... do you feel something strange?" He asked surprised.

"As if somebody tried to come into my mind." The girl replied. Soon her eyes were flooded with white light, and the mind moved somewhere far away.

Man with long grey hair and Megan's grandmother sat in one of guest rooms of the old lady house. The woman was devastated by the truth about who really thretened Megan's life and traitor serving the Queen of the Land of Everlasting Twilight who was among her defenders. She calmed down when Marcon told her his students, guardians of the liminal zone between the Earth, and magic Tylwyth Teg's world had followed her granddaughter. Marcon's daughter, Owena, was one of them. The old woman got to know that the girl had become the owner of the magic sword, belonging to her and to her predecessors. She knew that the guardian and her companions could provide a safety for Megan, but she sensed that something bad would happen. Not to Pixie, but to her and her old friend.

"Something will happen here." She said.

"What are you talking about? This place is an oasis of peace protected by powerful magic." The man was surprised.

"My magic burnt itself out a long time ago. But I'm sensing that something much powerful than I ever was will come to us."

In the same time, a blue light stroke the room from the window.

"They are here! Mab's envoys!" The woman said rising off the sofa.

"That's impossible! I know nithing about any Fearie or the Changelling living in these lands."

"Most clearly you don't have good source of information..." The old woman announced with a sad voice.

"Or Mab achieved her purpose." She added.

After seconds of hesitation, they both left the house, where a dangerous reception committee waited for them. The old man created protective pentagrams of light around both hands.

"Don't bother. You are one, elderly man. There are many of us and we are all sound in body." The woman with bright-blue hair and purple eyes said. She had the green dress on. The tall man in the dark, leather coat with white skin and dark hair stood by her. Black glasses were stuck on his eyes. There was a black-haired girl with violet eyes and pointed ears. She looked at the assembled company with a cold and absent eyesight. Behind three figures, the man with the face covered with the mask and the woman dressed in the old-fashioned dress stood. She was holding blue skinned baby with red eyes.

"We are a new type of Changellings, the same as Megan Gwynn, our prototype. No guard would be able to detect our passage to this world, because it wasn't bodily travel. Our Queen will fulfil her purpose and create new world, made from joined lands of Eternal Dusk and the Earth." The child said with a voice of the adult man, then he went to sleep on hands of its minder. The masked man took out the sword, very similar to the one which belonged to Owena.

"You are the last link of old world order which must be eliminated." He announced. His group prepared for the attack.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Megan was walking along dark stairs in a distance of few steps from her mother. The queen lighted her path with a magic ball of green light, while the remaining space inside the tower was submerged in a complete darkness. In a minute, the girl was going to learn what new surprise her real mother prepared for her.

"Perhaps I should call dad or my friends?" She asked.

"No. They are enjoying the night amongst my subjects. You will join them soon. I want you to stay only with me for a few more minutes, because soon we will part forever." The queen answered.

"Why will I not be able to come back here?"

"You will lose the part fof the soul which makes you Fearie."

"But after none of my friends is connected with this land, and in spite of it all of them travelled here without any problems. In this forest clearing with mushrooms, it was I who suffered the most, not them."

"Exactly. You bring danger to yourself and all others. Therefore you cannot come back here. If you crossed the borders of the Land of Eternal Twilight again, your Fearie soul would revive, and dark Tylwyth Teg would try to use you again."

Megan reached to the end of stairs and entered the room of the tower somewhere very deep in its interior. Darkness there could not be lightened even by the green light of the magic ball.

"But why you can not visit me on the Earth?" Megan asked. Mab clenched fists.

"My feet will never be touching its soil again" She announced coldly.

"Megan. I want you to know that you are somebody very dear for me. You are somebody without whom I could not become a person which I will be in a near future. At first I wanted to make you to stay here, to turn you into common Fearie. But now I know that your birth in a body of a woman on the Earth was a part of my destiny. I am happy that gods didn't let me destroy your father, when he tried to protect your soul from my destructive magic. I know that gods gave me in you the chance to fulfill my duty. I thank you Megan and... and I apologise."

"I don't quite understand what it is all about, but what you wanted to show me here? It's here so dark that I can see nothing." Megan was alarmed. The cold moisture in the room caused that she had wanted to be upstairs again as soon as possible.

"You can't see it, because it is behind your back." Mab replied gladly.

Pixie slowly turned around, looking carefully, but noticed nothing in the darkness. The Mab's green ball came near to her and exploded unexpectedly. The girl was knocked over with shock wave and fell down on something hard and lumpy. She felt a great pain in her whole body, as if somebody threw her between raging flames. Soon, the entire room filled iwith ntense, red light.

Shan and Ian were walking amongst guests of Mab's palace, searching for friends of the man and Mark. The girl noticed a strange glow afloat above walls surrounding the palace. The phenomenon appeared suddenly, but nobody else spotted it.

"The palace surrounded itself with a strange glitter." Shan turned to the man.

"Yes. Most probably Mab's service is preparing another surprise for guests."

"Maybe, but nobody apart from us noticed it."

"Tylwyth Teg are accustomed to such lightings. For them, it is nothing strange. Do you remember the strange lights that turned up in forests during our trip?"

"I remember it. Shining mushrooms brought us trouble."

"Stop worrying. Better let us find the rest of your group. We must soon gather togehter and come back, as soon as Mab removes a spell of binding from Megan. Hey, I can see Will standing there, on walls." The man announced pointing at Will, who was looking at the courtyard from the wall directly below it. Will looked at his friend smiling widely. Ian and Shan walked up the stairs to the walls. Shan was surprised, seeing that Will was surrounded by elves with golden hair armed in swords.

"Don't stand petrified here and come here to play with us." Ian started the conversation.

"The real fun will begin soon." Will answered looking at Shan.

"Something's wrong here." Mutant woman tried to tell something to Megan;s father, but the one he didn't listen.

"But you won't be participating in it." The black-haired man added, giving secret signs to elves. Men surrounded Karma and Ian.

"What is happening here! Don't make fun of us!" Megan's father shouted at the friend.

"I knew, that something's wrong!" Shan tried to attack Will telepathically. She wanted to take control over his mind. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to enslave the mind of the demon hiding in a man's body. Her psychic attack reflected from Will's mind and hit her. Shan staggered. She lost consciousness and started falling down, but Ian managed to catch her at the last moment.

"What the hell is happening!" Ian became nervous. He clenched fists preparing for the fight.

"Don't do it. Go where Tylwyth Teg will show you. You can see how easily I defeated the woman from X-Men who has years of trainings of using telepathic powers. You are an ordinary man, you don't have a chance against me."

Ian resigned from a fight. He knew that his old friend had been right.

"Lock them up." Will ordered men with golden hair.

"What do you want! Why are you doing it!" Ian still didn't understand what had happened around him.

"I'm doing my mission. And you should not trust me from the very beginning, because nobody returns from the Forbidden Forest unscathed. This is the only truth you must remember from our travels in our youth."

When Mark regained consciousness, it turned out that he had been imprisoned in a small chamber with tiny window, through which the starlight and moolight entered. He tried to move, but quickly found out that he had been chained to the wall with golden chains.

"Damn it!" He shouted looking for the energy needed to free himself. Unfortunately, chains were draining all that was left in his body. After a moment, a whirlpool of rose petals turned up at the chamber and Erin appeared inside it. The boy clenched fists. The elf with golden hair approached him with a saunter, and looked at him coquettishly.

"Hello. Did you wake up? I hope that Will didn't damage you..." He said.

"What do you want from me! What does all of this mean!? Where is Megan!?" DJ asked.

"This repulsive girl should not concern you anymore. Her fate will soon meet her. I don't even know what my Queen is going to do with her and it really is not my business. I have you, as the gift for help in defeating enemies of the Queen."

"Enemies of the Queen? What are you talking about!"

"Ah, you know nothing... Your friends arrived here from the Earth in order to find you. And I helped to create very beautiful garden in which they will stay forever. They will be happy."

"My friends?! Ben, Nicholas, Hope and Jessica? What did happen to them?!" Mark became nervous ans started collecting the energy to hit Tylwyth Teg irritating him. Unfortunately he encountered the empty source again.

"There was more of them. But they should also not concern you. Now we have each other!" The elf smiled blinking at the boy.

"Think how our future will look like... only you, I and this beautiful room." Erin touched DJ's face, and a little later, he hugged his body.

"Why..." The mutant asked.

"Why are you doing it?"

"Why? Strange wuestion from the mouth of somebody, for whom I want to give the earthly paradise. But perhaps you already know the answer."

Erin touched Mark's cheek again, but this time he did it with a hand of gold.

"You deprived me of my body part... but if I thought very carefully, I like this golden prosthesis even more than my real hand. The reply to your question is much simpler. I am doing it for the same reason, I have participated in orgies with women, men and children every night. I am doing it for the same reason, I sentenced the friend from childhood times to change into the magic plant in the Garden of Delight. I am doing it for the same reason, I am helping my Queen join with the Annwn land. I am doing it because I want and I can." Erin smiled coquettishly reaching for the sword.

"If we are supposed to play together, perhaps we should become similar to each other, what do you say? I will give you the same golden hand as mine..."

Hope, Sallos and the Traveller were inside the chamber with a large mirror, in which the infernal prince could observe the palace of Queen Mab. The capital city of Teg Tylwyth country was like every day and nothing pointed at dramatic events which happened behind its walls. In a picture drawn magically on the surface of the mirror there was apparently no garden created by the magic of the Queen.

"Everything there is the same as ever. I can see nothing you are talking about!" The black-haired man said, looking at the Traveller still being in his bird's form.

"I am not lying you. Mab is using a charm of the illusion such strong that even your eyes permeating darkness aren't able to notice truth in it."

"I can help." Hope cut in on a conversation.

"Do you remember how we met for the first time? I was in my astral form. If you show me where Mab's palace is, I can move there with the speed of a thought. And if you..." She turned to Sallosa.

"If you touch a hand of my physical body, I can try to show you telepathically what my astral eyes will see. It will be a short transmission, because I've done it perhaps twice so far and I'm not able to hold a longer connection with other mind.

"A brief lapse will be enough. I want to see what Mab hid from me." Sallos agreed with the girl's ida. Hope came up to him, gripped his hand and at that very moment used her abilities to leave the body. She was glad, when it turned out that her abilities had come back. Her astral form looked at the Traveller who already knew what to do. He opened the bright gate, originating in the point of the power close to the capital of the magic land. When Hope's wraithlike figure was ready for the travel, the Traveller in the bird's form took her inside the bright gate. Soon, Trance was above the Queen's palace. Sallos saw what the girl could see. Although the connection was broken after a few seconds, the demon was sure about what happened in the Annwn's capital city. The queen cheated him, creating the barrier around her palace in a form of the magic garden. However the truth was much more terrible than he supposed. The strange light appearing above Mab's castle meant that the process of opening doors to the Hell had started. Hope noticed something more. Her astral eyes could penetrate through the barrier of the garden's illusion. The girl caught sight of her friends locked up in their own minds, living in illusions given them by devilish powers, imprisoned amongst bizarre plants. When the Traveller brought her back to Sallos home, Hope immediately came back to her body.

"They are there... everyone... Jessica, Ben, Nick, Laura and this two... Loranir and Owena. They're in some trance... they cannot move. We must help them!"

"It's not so simple. Mab is opening the Gate. Border between worlds are starting to fade away. I don't know whether I will be able to destroy the magic of this garden. I still don't know which Infernal Lord's power was given to Queen."

"I don't know. The demon didn't betray name of his Lord." The Traveller replied.

"There is a way to destroy the Garden of Earthly Delights." The voice of the woman broke the silence prevailing in the dark room.

"Who dares!" Sallos said angrily. As it turned out, the elven woman from the council of elders, who had set off to search for Hope, stood in the door of the demon's residence. She found the girl following the track of spectral horses from the lake.

"I am Merlara. I am a member of the council of elders of Dark Tylwyth Teg." The elf woman introduced herself.

"We thank you for the protection." She added, nodding to the demon.

"Mab's illusion can be destroyed from the inside. The queen made a mistake letting the Stigmatic into her place." She said.

"Jessica?" Hope asked in a surprise.

"Yes. Your friend has an ability to break the illusion of the garden."

"We must track her down. As soon as possible." Sallos was ready to go.

"How will we get there?" Hope asked.

"Merlara will move us right in the middle of the illusion. Right? Do you have enough strength in yourself to do it woman?" Sallos asked.

"Yes." The woman announced, gearing herself up to cast the spell.

"Remember that we won't have too much time there. My presence will protect you from the immersion in the illusion for a short while. But if we don't find your friend and don't force her to dream her own dream inside a dream, you will also become a victim of the garden." The demon communicated his advice to Hope.

Merlara used teleportation spell in order to move Hope, Sallos and the Traveller into the very heart of the Garden of Delight.

When the sky above the land of Eternal Twilight became red from the glow surrounding Queen Mab's castle, the witch Matilda already had lost almost all of her allies. Some of them chose the real Wild Hunt, when elven wizard had freed the Celestial Boar, and others died from swords, arrows and the magic of dark elves. Matilda saw bloody glitter over the forest and laughed, because she knew that the attempt to stop her Queen was futile.

"Your plan didn't help you! The queen completed her ritual and soon will become the real queen of this world. And the guardian of the border between dimensions must be dead, just like all her friends!" The witch screamed raising her cane above the head.

Grathgor looked at the wizard with an anxiety. For the first time he didn't know what to do. He had a chance to destroy the witch who threatened his countrymen, but he also knew that soon a much more serious fight was supposed to break out. Matilda looked at elves with great hate. Undead Will and few kings were waiting for orders of the witch.

"We're ready! We're waiting!" Elven archers lost patience because the moment of a silence was too long. Grathgor watched his warriors. It looked like he had tried to gather his thoughts, to force oneself to say the only words which were appropriate in such a moment. He sheathed his sword asking silently other warriors to do the same.

"Matilda! The victory belongs to you. We are coming back to our forest and we won't interfere in matters of Queen Mab and her manor house." The man said with an effort. Lamruil came up to him in order to protect him with the magic, in case the witch would decide to break the old rules.

"We must come back." Grathgor spoke.

"Our forest gives us power. Only there we will be able to defend ourselves against Mab's power. The victory over Matilda gave us only a moment of peace before what is inevitable." He said to the old friend.

Warriors weren't pleased with the retreat from the battlefield, but they very well understood the decision of their leader. They knew that they will be able to demonstrate the bravery very shortly, when Mab decides to erase them from the world like an anomaly like she had always thought of them. They knew that songs about their glorious deaths could be made, songs that nobody would write about them in the new world.

When last of warriors disappeared in the forest thicket, Matilda felt even greater self-confidence.

"We are following them. We will send them to the Hell and we will make new members of our Wild Hunt." The witch hissed to the wizard.

"It is against the Law." Will replied quietly.

"The old law is no longer there, and our new queen will praise us for destroying these outcasts." The old woman announced.

Hopa, Sallos and the Traveller who changed into the night owl sitting on the shoulder of the Prince of Hell were walking along the stone path in the heart of coniferous forest. After crossing the border of the Garden, they appeared inside the illusion of somebody of their improsoned friends. Their appearance changed according to expectations of the vision, therefore they both looked like the couple of ordinary mountain tourists. Sallos instructed the girl.

"Remember that we must find the Prophetess, your friend as soon as possible. We cannot start conversations with anybody else. Firstly it doesn't make a sense because nothing here is real, secondly probably nobody will recognize you."

"I understand. I also want to find Jessica quickly. If what you told me is true..."

"Unfortunately, that's true. Blood-red red skyover the Land of Eternal Twilight means that the Queen began the ritual of opening the Doors. We must break it as soon as possible."

"I can see the fire. Somebody is making a bonfire!" The night owl spoke with a human voice noticing the indication of a human activity in the darkness of the forest.

"We must go there." Sallos announced. When three of them were close to the light source, it turned out that the campsite had made by Laura Kinney and Loranir. They both were sitting on a knocked over trunk of the tree, looking at flames burning in the middle of the forest clearing. Laura turned around, noticing approaching people. Loranir got up in order to see them better. Sallos looked around, noticing nobody else.

"Don't worry about us!" He said to Laura and Loranir.

"We are looking for our own forest clearing." He added snuggling Hope. When he disappeared in thickets with the girl, Laura looked at the long-haired man.

"You said that we would be here alone."

"How was I supposed to know that somebody else will go into this remote place? I thought that only we like such a dark, romantic scenery."

"All right... they simply frightened me a bit. After all we talked about..."

Loranir sat down closer the girl. He embraced her and hugged her.

"I'm happy that you went with me on this trip." He said smiling. After a short moment of silence he started kissing her.

Sallos, Hope and the Traveller found their way to the next illusion. They went along a wooden fence covered by a green moss. The enclosure separated a little grove from beautiful, extensive meadows. There was a morning, or more accurately a moment at which the Sun emerges from behind the horizon. The air was cold and the milk-white fog settled above the earth.

"I wonder if it's Jessica's vision..." Hope thought aloud.

"No. Your friend isn't an owner of the sword forged in the Annwn Land. It is a dream of the liminal zone guardian." The Traveller, in the form of the bird, shared his observations.

"How do you know?"

"A moment ago I was high up in the air and I could see what is hidden behind the hill."

"We must go further. Only a contact with a dreaming person will let us leave this illusion and entry to the next one." Sallos stopped the conversation.

After a few minutes of the walk, the entire group came at a little forest clearing. On the other side of wooden fence, there was a forest cottage, and two people nearby it. In one of them, Hope recognised Owena, but the man with long, grey hair, dressed in dark clothes and a hat was unknown to her. The blonde didn't notice wanderers, because she was looking in other direction. The old man looked at Sallos, but didn't react. Owena was holding a sword. She was worn out and looked like a person standing with an effort.

"Your breath is chaotic and holding the sword is starting to be too difficult for you. But it is a beginning. I hit you with one of the most weak spells I know. If using the magic of the sword is so difficult for you, I will have to look for somebody new, somebody who has true talent for being the guardian." The long-haired man spoke.

"No!" Owena shouted.

"I can do it! I'm able to use the sword! Didn't it choose me? Don't you remember?"

"I told you that it was a fairy tale, which I told you only so you can became more confident in yourself. But now I can see that I made a mistake! You can't tell the truth from a fiction. How can you exist in the world in which finding the difference between an illusion and the reality is a key to staying alive?"

"Attack me one more time! I won't disappoint you! I'm able to use the protective magic of the sword!" The girl was desperate.

"If you want..." The old man said smiling maliciously. The locket with a pentagram on his neck glistened with a blue lighting and two balls of blue light appeared in his hands. The man hurled them at Owena. The girl deflected the first one, but the second one, flying from other direction, hit her, turning her over to the ground and tore the sword out from her hand. Owena got up very quickly, holding her aching shoulder.

"You aren't ready." The man said coldly.

"Should we not help her?" Hope asked Sallos.

"No. She is affected by her past, or the memory about the past which is still in her head. She must cope with it herself."

The three of travellers entered the thick, forest fog and disappeared in it. When Hope opened her eyes, it turned out that she had been in some big, American city. Something bad happened, because people fled in panic, and alarms of police vans were heard all around.

"What does it mean?" Sallos asked looking at the uniform into which his clothes changed. He was wearing a black costume with red shoes and gloves. He was holding a red trident. Hope looked at him, then at herself and the Traveller. The girl was dressed in a white dress with black gloves and shoes. Former companion of Geralt took the form of a white cat.

"We're in the US. I know who dreamt of becoming a superhero saving the world from the crisis of this type. It's Match's illusion, I'm sure about it. Come on, we're going the opposite way than all these people." Trance suggested. After a moment, it turned out that she had been right about the identity of the author of a new vision. Match stood in the middle of the street. He was dressed in a red uniform with painted flames. His head burnt, similarly as his hands. Hope recognised Songbird from Thunderbolts, Thor Girl, Quantin Quire, Magik, Colossus' sister, Deathlock, Luke Cage and some kind of yellow Hulk. When the girl looked upwards, it turned out that Magneto in the classic uniform, surrounded by an army of red robots, had been the opponent of her friend.

"Remember what I told you about him! We must defeat him at the first blow, otherwise we will lose!" Match screamed to his team.

"Avengers Assemble!" The mutant gave an command for the attack. The team began the fight against robots sent by the Master of Magnetism. Songbird saw Sallos, Hope and their white cat.

"Who you are! Escape from here!" She shouted.

"We will help you! I'm Ghost Girl, and it's Sallos, Son of Lucifer!" Trance announced gearing up for the help in defeating the opponent.

"What are you doing!" The Prince of the Hell wasn't happy.

"I'm trying to play a role. These illusions are kie our Danger Room."

"We must search for the Prophetess. If you are starting to like it here, that we really do not have much time."

Sallos grabbed Hope and took her towards the entry to one of buildings. The white cat followed them. The demon closed the door behind himself.

In another vision, Trance, Sallos and the Traveller, under the form of a dog, were sitting inside a car driving through desert areas of the central-west part of the United States. Dry, hot air filled the inside of the vehicle up, resembling the young mutant a trip to the small home town of her friend. When the first buildings appeared, the girl was sure. Her group finally managed to find the way to the dream in which Jessica was imprisoned.

"It's here. Jessica is here. Stop." She said to the driver.

"Are you sure about it?"

"Yes. It's a place in which Jessica went to her high school. I visited this place and it was almost the same as in this dream."

"All right. We must track her down as soon as possible." Sallos stopped the car. The girl left the car, opening the door for the traveller in a canine form. She looked all around, not noticing a single one man on the streets. The city was looking like abandoned. It resembled a film set built for westerns which which she saw as a small girl when parents had taken her to a film studio. Streets and pavements were full of sand brought by the wind from the desert. Hope turned in the street leading to a residential area, trying to remember how Jessica's mother's house looked like. Soon she found it, but it turned out that it was in a ruin and unoccupied through by nobody.

"Why did we come here?" Sallos asked.

"It's Jessica's house. I thought that we would find her here. Probably I was wrong."

"I feel nobody in this hovel." The Traveller announced.

"Strange. In all other dreams, we found the dreaming one very quickly." Sallos said.

"What is logical, because illusions of this type cannot be too big. They often spread only over the most immediate neighbourhod of the person who creates them. Why it's so different here? This city is like a maze." Sallos looked around, seeing identical houses, gloomy and vacated by all life surrounding him from every side.

"It's so extensive and complicated, as if it was built to mislead us." He added.

"Because Jessica's mind created them. She is precog, she is able to see the future, but only in the form of visions difficult to understand. In the past it was different. Jessica was much more powerful." Hope shared her knowledge about the friend.

"In what way?"

"We're calling it reality-warping. Jessica could change reality only by her thoughts. She wasn't able to control it, her own creations took the control over her life. Jessica destroyed the part of herself in order to save us from herself. She used her abilities to the change of reality on her own mind, erasing this abilities.

"Your friend is stupid."

"How could you! You don't know what she went through! What we all went through then! You're a demon! You worry only about power and strength! You would like to have somebody as she, right?" Hope became nervous.

"Who gave you this idea? I wouldn't like to have a servant more powerful than me. Think what Jessica could do if she still had these abilities. She would erase Mab out of existence and you would get back home safely."

"Hey! Stop having a pointless discussion and do what you have to do!" The Traveller shouted.

"How dare you to speak to me in this tone!" Sallos replied.

"When you wasted time, I looked around in surroundings. I found the dreaming one."

"Really?! Let us come to her!" Hope was happy.

Trance and Sallos followed the Traveller, choosing streets and lanes of the illusory city which according to him were supposed to take them to the target. Soon, it turned out that extraordinary abilities of the magical being to find the road had been effective even in the changing dream landscape created by the mind of the sleeping prophetess. The traveller led them out to one of main streets of the small town, right up to the house of Jessica's good friend, Michelle.

"I know this house. I saw it when I was in Salvation with Jessica."

"Has this place some meaning for the dreaming one? Was she born here?" The demon asked interested.

"No. But something that changed her forever happened here. Here, her real powers emerged in fuyll power and because of that her good friend died. Here, Jessica's abilities to the change of reality started getting out of control."

"She was too weak. Such people should not be given gifts, which others would use much more effectively."

"It's she. She's with Michelle... probably, because I haven't seen her. Only in a photo." Hope noticed Jessica and other black-haired girl walking on the pavement in the direction of the house. Trance wanted to say hello to Preview.

"Remember, she may not recognize you." Sallos tried to warn her, but she didn't listen to him.

"Jessica! I'm so glad that I can finally see you." Hope shouted, running up to Preview. Jessica was surprised seeing a stranger.

"Who's this?" Michelle asked.

"I don't know. I've never seen her before." Jessica replied.

"Who are you? How do you know my name?" She asked noticing Sallos standing with the dog.

"Are you waiting for us?" She was surprised. Hope moved between her and Michelle.

"Jessica! Do you remember nothing? You must remember! Megan may have not much time! The ritual of Queen Mab has already started. All Paragons are imprisoned in their own dreams and only your power can free them. You must remind yourself why you came here!"

"What do you mean, girl?" Jessica was very dissatisfied with the appearance of insistent stranger. She wanted to get rid of her as soon as possible.

"We have no time for this." Sallos whispered seeing fruitless attempts of young mutant girl. He banged his fist on the pane of the car standing close by. He broke it, and fragments of glass dashed off towards Jessica and her former friend. The traveller changed into a human form and removed Hope from the line of striking chips of glass in a flash. Slices of the pane seeped very close to Jessica, wounding her hands. Blood from her sores splashed girl's legs, then fell down to the street in the form of drops. Glass hit the illusion of Michelle, ripping her to shreds. A shock, that Jessica experienced going through the brutal death of her closest friend again, caused that the girl had recalled why she had been in the strange place and what was the real objective of her visit in the world of Eternal Twilight. She looked at bleeding hands, and then at Trance standing in the company of other unknown people.

"Hope?" She asked, still being stunned by restored memories.

"Jessica... I will help you right away..." Trance announced thinking how to bandage wounds of the friend. In the same time, the place in which Preview's blood fell was becoming more and more black. Fragments of the pavement cracked in the place of the appearance of dark stains, and the space around them filled with a red fog. Jessica ran up to Hope and Sallos, and the Traveller geared himself up to open one of his corridors. He was to escape from the world of illusions. Blackness moved along streets of the spectral city, bringing the disintegration of all its elements. Soon, the sky above Salvation became red. Clouds carrying the Preview's power gathered above, able to destroy lies of masters of the Hell.

Meanwhile, Nicholas Gleason also became a prisoner of his own dream. In his case, it developed differently than for his friends, because Mab's charm affected his animal, uncontrollable nature. The human in a body of wolf-boy was put to sleep, trapped deep into subconsciouses, but his second nature took over him entirely and created ideal world for a denizen of a forest. Wolfcub became a part of the night pack running through the forest into a darkness. He was free, like his companions and his mind was overcome with only one thought - capturing the prey. His wolfish soul was too wild to be controlled by the magic of Queen Mab, which worked on her subjects, the beings living in the captivity of their own, restricted imagination. Nicholas escaped from the group of wolves running into a forest avenue and soon left the illusion of the night forest, the prison of his own mind and emerged in the real garden around the capital of Annwn. The animal awareness still governed over his brain, but the last memories from the time when had thought as a man, returned. He knew that he had to get to the castle and rescue his friends.

Meanwhile on the Earth, Marcon and Mrs. Gwynn were cornered by the group of changellings sent by Queen Mab and her demonic ally. The old man created a protective shield around himself and waited for an attack. The blue haired girl hit first. She summoned streams of crystal gleaming water and used them against the man. The shield withstood. The changelling retreated letting her companions to act. The man in the mask on the face touched the earth under his feet and sharpened rocks grew out of it a moment later. There was more and more of them, they started approaching Marcon with a large speed. A few of them touched the surface of the magic shield, crumbling on it. Long-haired man took the locket with a pentagram out, raised it up, and his barrier expanded destroying all rock formations of the masked man. The spell made him tired, and his barrier was weakened. The man in the sunglasses attacked third. He summoned a beam of an intense light which poured over Marcon and Megan's grandmother. The long-haired wizard cast a spell of reversing colours at the last moment, saving his and old woman's eyes. When the light touched the barrier, Marcon felt a great pain, as if his skin was poured by an acid. He didn't yield again, but he was even more weakened.

"We must escape from here!" The horrified woman shouted.

"I don't know whether I will be fast enough..." Marcon replied, still breathing with a difficulty. In the same time, the black-haired girl with pointed ears and the woman holding the baby with blue skin prepared for the attack. When the child opened his eyes and raised his hand, a strange anomaly appeared around Marcon. The time and space bent on each other ordered by little demon and atried to crush the wizard and Megan's grandmother. The man had no choice. He had to risk dropping the protective barrier and teleport himself and the womand as far from the enemies as possible. When the space-time distortion whirled faster and faster, unrestricted by the magic barrier, Marcon cast a spell of the transfer. The black-haired girl also used her magic, sending two ball lightnings towards the couple of the elderly men. Marcon and the old lady disappeared. The demonic child calmed the time and space, knowing that sorcerers were already outside the range of his power.

"Did they escape from us?" Blue haired woman asked.

"No. I am sure that I hit one of them." The elven girl replied.

"If they survived, we will find them and fulfil the will of our Queen. " The child announced with a voice of an adult man.

Marcon and Megan's grandmother turned up in the hill, exactly at the same place in which the Traveller transported Megan, Mark and Shan a few days earlier. Marcon fell down on his knees. He was tired with the sudden teleportation and hard fight against Mab's changellings.

"We did it... you know... we managed to escape from someone controlling the etheric element." He said. Not hearing an reply, he started looking all around searching for his companion. Quickly, he found her, lying on the grass, holding the wound on her torso.

"No!" He shouted running up to the seriously injured woman.

"You weren't fast enough..." The elderly lady whispered.

"Lightning was faster..." She added.

"Don't move... I will cure you..." The man said reaching for the talisman.

"No. You are too weak... you cannot pass away now, because your daughter isn't ready for the lonely protection of the liminal zone."

Marcon kneeled down by the woman and touched her hand.

"I'm sorry... I wasn't able to protect you." He said with tears in his eyes.

"Don't be sorry... my time has come, it's so simple. Now I'm needed somewhere else... I can see... I can see Megan going to the same place as I... I must stop her... show her the way home..."

These were the last words of Megan's grandmother, old guardian of the liminal zone between two lands.

The redness arising from Jessica's blood mixt with the magic of the Garden of Earthly Delights moved through the garden like a violent fire, destroying every illusion on its road and freeing minds of all persons imprisoned inside it. The sky became bloody above forests and mountains created by joined minds of Laura Kinney and Loranir. The girl sleeping in a tent woke up since she sensed approaching danger. She dug herself out from under the sleeping bag, leaving the long-haired man being still in a dream state. She didn't manage to put clothes on, because the threat was too close. Dressed only in black pants, she left the tent, unsheathing her claws in hands and feet. She looked at the sky. The wave of reality hit her with intense power, smashing her dream as a lethal tornado. At the same time, the bloody sky turned up above the house in front of which the old master taught his successor. Owena looked at the strange phenomenon with a terror. She gripped the sword firmly, wanting its magic to protect her from the unknown. The destructive element was closer the girl. The grey haired man came up to Owena, smiling. He didn't change his facial expression, even when his gaze met the terrified eyes of his pupil.

"Don't fight with what is supposed to come. Go with this wind, it will take you to your real mission." These were the last words of the long-haired man. A moment later, he was ripped to shreds as the rest of Owena's dream. The strong gale of reality reached also the illusion of New York, where Match and his Avengers rescued the world from the new agenda of the Master of the Magnetism. When the sky above the city became red, Ben Hammil lead his people to the fight again. Songbird, Thor Girl, Quantin Quire, Magik, Deathlock, Luke Cage and the yellow Hulk defended the city for the last time. Match got back to the reality, where the real fight waited for him. The wave of the transformation reached Nicholas's empty dream bringing terror amongst the wolfish gang, thanks to which he gained independence from the illusion of Queen Mab.

Megan felt her body becoming a unity with a strange object on which surface her mother threw her. The glow surrounding the stone tree scorched the shirt on her back, trousers and the underwear. Soon, the rough bark touched the delicate body of the girl. Sharp, miniature spikes squeezed into hands and legs of Megan, sank into her wings, the skin on her back and buttocks. Mutant girl felt a great pain, she felt like screaming, but the black magic of the chamber she was in paralysed her body and voval cords. Tears appeared in her eyes. Mab stood in a distance from the emerging trans-dimensional gate looking at effects of tortures she sentenced her own daughter. The stone tree started the most important process in opening the gate between Earth and the Infernal Land, tearing of Megan's soul to shreds and its to create the bridge between two worlds. The girl stopped feeling her own body, when senses rebelled against her and attacked her brain with completely contrary information. Megan could see lightings of the Garden of Earthly Delights behind windows of the chamber of the gate and at the same time, she looked at her own body deeply rooted into the bark of the tree, rising above it as a disembodied being. She thought that her awareness had existed in many places simultaneously, looked at landscapes well-known to her from the childhood and at dark world full of rivers of lava incising desert plains. She could hear a lot of voices talking to her in a completely incomprehensible way, mutually outshouting one another. She tried to run away from them, to disappear somewhere, to find the place in which she would be safe for the entire eternity. In a vain, because the stone tree joined her with itself, both the body and the soul. Mab smiled seeing as pink glow appeared around the heart of Megan, which soon was supposed to open the doors to her real glory. Will turned up at the chamber of the gate. Mab looked at him surprised.

"What happened?" She asked.

"Mutants found a way to escape from the illusion of the garden." The demon announced calmly.

"How is it possible?"

"I don't know, but I feel that Sallos is with them. He is here, in the garden, in front of your palace."

"It doesn't make any difference. The ritual already began and he can't break it. Sallos will become nobody soon." The Queen was self-confident.

"You must stop them to the moment of completion of the ritual." She added.

"Of course, my queen." Will bowed to his ruler and disappeared from the chamber in order to fight with Sallos and his allies.


End file.
